AND THE CHARACTERS HERE ARE VERY NICE. IN FACT, THEY’RE UNBELIEVABLY LIKEABLE. Han Solo is Han Solo. The stud in the leather jacket.
Harrison Ford did a terrific job here. For the first time in a decade I had the feeling that he actually cared for the role and wasn’t just waiting for the cameras to stop rolling. He actually tried. He maybe channeled more the Han of Episode 6 than the one from A New Hope or Empire Strikes Back, but that’s still better than anything he’s done in the past ten years. I had the feeling that he really cared for the role. Why? You’ll have to stick around for the spoilers to see why.
Chewbacca doesn’t only stand around anymore, he develops and influences the plot. Actually, he develops more and is far more convincing than some of the protagonists in the prequels. But it’s actually Rey and Finn that are the actual story here. They’re the Han and Leia for the new generations, and despite the big heritage, they did their jobs well. At first I thought they’ll just fall under the different Hollywood-stereotypes, but that didn’t happen. Finn could have easily been a clumsy, stupid boy, but he isn’t. Rey could have been a sly, bitchy know-it-all. But she isn’t. As I said, both are very likeable. Not that I have no objections, but you’ll have to wait for the spoilers.
IMAGE: Courtesy of The Walt Disney Company Nordic
Poe Dameron has not much screen-time, but every
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minute was well used and it’s no wonder he’s one of the favorites of Episode 7. The same goes for the new droid BB-8, who (which?) is a perfect example how to make a cute and comical character without it being Jar Jar. And the best at the end.
Kylo Ren is a great villain (not counting Snoke, be-
cause he’s, like the Emperor in the first trilogy, still very much unknown at the beginning). He’s probably my favorite character. They say he’s not like Darth Vader, but that’s the point. Kylo Ren is young, tortured and torn, and that makes him the most believable of all the new characters. He also has a very cool lightsaber and does the Force choke during the movie. What more do you want? Not that he didn’t get his nose bloody, but more about that in the spoiler section.
All in all, The Force Awakens is an OK film. As we said. A fun, exciting, two-and-a-half-hour adventure, which references its predecessors a lot, but brings a big enough dose of freshness, too. It’s a very solid sequel and brings back the atmosphere of Star Wars in a marvelous way. It’s a movie not many people will hate or find boring. It has good characters, old and new, a few emotional moments and a healthy dose of comedy. The movie is a must for Star Wars fans, and for outsiders it can be an experience without the burdens of the six previous movies. In other words, go watch it! And now off into spoiler territory. Han Solo dies! ZOMG! This is actually not that a big of a surprise, because Harrison Ford has been pitching his death since Empire Strikes Back. He wanted the death to be during some rescue-op or some duel. Of course, that never happened because George Lucas had his own vision (which probably included midi-chlorians). He’s killed by Kylo Ren, who is the son of Han and Leia. That would be another ZOMG moment if the theory didn’t appear as soon as we saw Adam Driver being cast in the movie. This revelation wasn’t played in the “Luke, I’m your father”-style, but was woven into the story organically, which is very nice. If it had been played as some big surprise, it would neither have been big, nor a surprise, but transparent and unoriginal. Abrams approaches the narrative in a very relaxed way. There are no big, theatrical speeches, the tension is transferred by the action, there aren’t too many explanations (yes, I’m again thinking of the f*cking midi-chlorians). The franchise returns to its roots, where the Force is almost magic, where big coincidences don’t get an explanation (for instance how of millions of planets in the galaxy the Millennium Falcon is on the exact same planet as the droid with the map to Luke). The Force is something that binds every living being in that universe. It’s untouchable and can only be felt. Lucas trying to explain the Force in the sequels is probably the stupidest thing he has done. That’s why it’s good that Abrams reverted to FORCE = MAGIC