There is finally balance in The Force. After the debacle that was the Star Wars prequels, we now have a Star Wars movie that everyone will truly enjoy. Who knew that it took the man that revived the Star Trek franchise to erase what the memory of the prequels from our minds. Star Wars: The Force Awakens, is truly a new era in the the Star Wars universe and gone are our misgivings of the franchise falling into the hands of the House of Mouse.
A movie worthy of the original
Set around 30 years after Return of the Jedi, the Dark side has a new face in the form of the First Order, a military and political organization inspired by the Galactic Empire. The Rebel forces are now called The Resistance and led by General Leia Organa and they now oppose the First Order as the battle between the Light side and Dark side rages on. I’ll stop here cause I’m afraid that I might just divulge too much if I were to go on.
It was quite obvious that when J.J. Abrams started working on Star Wars: The Force Awakens, he did it in a way that acknowledged and paid tribute to the original movie Star Wars: A New Hope. Being a Star Wars fan, I was struck by how many elements in The Force Awakens paralleled that of the original. However, make no mistake though, the movie does focus on the new characters.
The dialogue itself was not cringe worthy and the movie manages to mix in a good amount of emotional and funny bits that actually got the whole cinema in laughter at times. That for me, was already an indicator that the movie was pretty good as there were a few journos in costume mixed in as well.
Effects and visual wise, J.J. Abrams did a fine job marrying well executed CGI and old school special effects into the movie. The locations all felt real, non of that fake green screen feeling like I had watching the prequels. This is especially more so if you’re watching the movie on IMAX 3D.
The Extended Universe lives! In spirit anyway.
There’s a treat as well for fans of the now defunct Extended Universe. You’ll find that although the Extended Universe has now been consigned as non-canon, it is there in the new movie in spirit. I may not be a rabid Star Wars fan but I did gobble up quite a bit of the extended universe books and some of its comics. So it was with delight that I found bits and pieces in the movie that sort of borrowed elements of the old Extended Universe in. Disney and Abrams have taken a good step by incorporating some of its elements into the new movies and lore. Maybe, just maybe we might even see Mara Jade appear in one form or another in the future two movies.
