THE FORCE AWAKENS: Saw the new Star Wars movie yesterday afternoon in San Jose; the theater was virtually packed; standing a few people behind us in line was a paunchy fellow in Han Solo’s red-striped pants and collarless pullover from the Empire Strikes Back; another gentleman wore a “HAN SHOT FIRST!” T-shirt. A woman in a wheelchair was sporting Princess Leia bun-shaped earmuffs. As in 1999, everyone cheered when the Star Wars logo appeared and John Williams’ triumphant score roared back to life. Unlike 1999’s The Phantom Menace and the rest of the prequels, the crowd applauded at key moments throughout the movie: the surprise first appearance of the Millennium Falcon; the first appearance of its best-known pilot and navigator; the first appearance of everyone’s favorite pair of robotic comedic relief, and the first appearance of Princess, err, General Leia.
Beyond that, no spoilers; I’m pretty sure everything I just mentioned can be seen in the film’s trailers. As someone tweeted on Friday, “This No-Star-Wars-Spoilers thing is the closest I’ve seen Americans work together since 9/11.” I’m not sure when the expiration date expires for that consensus, but for now, if you’d like more detailed — and equally spoiler-free reviews, check out Kyle Smith in the New York Post, John Nolte at Big Hollywood, C.T. Rex at Hot Air, and “Yid With Lid’s” Jeff Dunetz.
If there’s a consensus they share, it’s this, as Nolte wrote:
In ways big and small, TFA’s main story is shockingly similar to “A New Hope,” which is actually a distraction as you compare the two.
Overall, I walked away with the sense that Abrams is using TFA to cleanse the franchise’s palate. Disney wants to pop one of these out every year until the end of time, and TFA feels like an apology, a repentance for the sins of creator George Lucas. Abrams and Disney are saying, “We hear you. We’ve fixed it. Let’s kiss and make up so we can hold hands and walk off into a marvelous future together.”
Which makes the achievement of 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back all the more rarefied — the only Star Wars sequel that both unabashedly worked and didn’t crib major plot elements and story beats from the original 1977 movie.
But unlike the clunky, cringe-inducing (“Hold me, like you did by the lake on Naboo!”) prequels, The Force Awakens is a fun, enjoyable ride, and a seamless merging of physical sets and atmospheric special effects. And atmosphere seems to be the right word — unlike the other movies, several of the major spacecraft battles were fought in planetary atmospheres, adding, particularly in the climactic shootout, the weather enveloping the ships. It was as they were returning to the original source material for the Death Star trench scenes, WWII aerial dog-fighting movies such as 633 Squadron and The Dam Busters.
There is one thing that’s troubling me, one of those once you see it, you can’t unsee it things. Lucas has said that buried deep within the subtext of the original Star Wars was a parable about the Vietnam War, with Palpatine as Nixon and eventually, the Ewoks as the Vietcong. (No, really.) Lucas would later claim that Revenge of the Sith was had overtones concerning the War On Terror. And as numerous bloggers wrote, J.J. Abrams’ second Star Trek movie, Star Trek into Darkness was an exercise in 9/11 trutherism and Michael Moore-style conspiracy theories. So am I seeing things with 500 stormtroopers tromping around The Force Awakens with black Ws – Dubyas, get it? get it? – cut into the mouthpieces of their newly revised headgear?
It’s just a weird coincidence…right?
