The Force is with the franchise once again.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Grade : A-
Director: J. J. Abrams (Star Trek)
Screenplay: Lawrence Kasdan (Raiders of the Lost Ark), et al.
Cast: Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 135 min.
by John DeSando
“How do we blow it up? There's always a way to do that.” Han Solo (Harrison Ford)
Although the above looks like a toss off, wisecracking line from the ultimate aging buccaneer, it does reflect the spirit of the seventh edition of the Star Wars franchise: can-do, keep ‘em laughing when you go, life is simple—the light and the dark. Once again the Star Wars world lights up with the youthful vigor it showed for the first time in 1977.
Director J.J. Abrams and writer Lawrence Kasdan and his crew have crafted a space opera that not only replicates the original by having its major players return as elder statesmen: Solo, Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), and Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), but it also adds attractive new comers as if they were replacing the last three. Pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) is like a new Solo, Rey (Daisy Ridley) is like a much more active Leia, and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) is like the more formidable Darth Vader. They are all fitting new heroes, promising the series life for years to come.
This time the good guys of light, The Resistance, are fighting the well-organized forces of the dark, The First Order. The good vs. evil is nothing new in its motifs and attitudes, but the characters within are full of life and individuality, even the bad guys. Above them all is the swashbuckling Solo, played with such finesse and charm by Ford that you may long to have him front and center in the subsequent chapters. Yet, the melancholic feel you have watching him do his smart-alecky turn is recognizing you must let him go to the newer model—that’s life, and that’s the humanity underlying the swagger of him and the film.
When Solo and Leia meet, these two veteran actors underplay with tenderness for each other and presumably their careers that thoughts of them as disposable and old school are dispelled. She is after all, a general in the resistance and he the same old adventurer. George Lucas sure knew what he was doing. Now it’s not his anymore but a brilliant Force called Disney.
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.rr.com
