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#Review #StarWarsTheForceAwakens hits the right notes. Homage to #ForceTenFromNavarone #nonspoilercommentary



JJ Abrams The Force Awakens hits the high notes. It begins aloft and never really falters. Some critics are calling BS on the nostalgia trip and the Starkiller remix plot. The homages extend not only to Star Wars A New Hope, and the original trilogy, but I could also not help recalling Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Force Ten From Navarone-- a great WWII dirty dozen style adventure featuring a young shiny Harrison Ford as the American Col. Barnsby. Aesthetically these films share paired down plots, archetypes, and storm troopers of either the Galactic of Nazi variety. Abrams shot a movie that is as good as what we remembered our favorite movies to be. It's magic.  Don't be a hater. He's a stylist, one groomed on the Goonies, Indiana Jones, Superman, and Jaws. Grand summer cinema.

In many ways the film celebrates Harrison Ford's legacy as a big screen action hero. He gets to do everything here, and with charm.

Abrams film is a marriage of old school craft and new school tech.  There's real dialogue for a change, but the action is what characterizes these people. There isn't much room for backstory. It's very much like A New Hope in that regard. We know nothing of these people. And that's great. We are plopped into the middle of a war story; essentially Star Wars films are war movies, albeit romanticized and infused with myth.

The Greek plot tropes work well with Star Wars material. The grandeur of a decaying democracy and the terrifying beauty of a rising power; Oedipal and Electra themes anchoring the characters. Already the new trilogy is better than the prequels, but that is setting the bar low. Note: Each of the first movies in the respective trilogies mirror each other in terms of thematic content. The new heroes and villains are intense and likable/hatable. Rey and Finn are cinema gold--"Gold Jerry, gold!"

Side: The prequels plodding plots (say it...say it), the wooden acting from half of the cast--the "important" half of the cast, mind you (Christensen, Portman... I'm looking in your direction.) and the horrid dialogue took the air out of the films. There are parts that I cannot watch. In the prequels defense, some of the action scenes were exceptional. Ewan and Samuel L kicked it. The Williams score surprised and thrilled.

What Abrams celebrates is cinema. The buzz. The freshness and surprise that a big screen experience brings. It feels like youth. It feels good. I saw it Friday with my boys, eleven and eight. The eight year old has a birthday this weekend. He wants to see it again. And so do I.
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