Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

Director: J.J. Abrams 
Story: Lawrence Kasdan, J.J. Abrams, Michael Arndt
Cast: Harrison Ford, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac
Music: John Williams
Time: 135 minutes
Bottom-line: Visual effects put to good use. That’s pretty much it

Episode VII of the Star Wars franchise was perhaps the most anticipated film of the year, and it’s finally out on screens. The film brings back Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher who all reprise their roles. I am not a hardcore fan of this franchise, which is probably why I didn’t enjoy the film as much as others did.

Ridley as Rey (left), Isaac as Dameron (centre)
and Boyega as Finn

Luke Skywalker (Hamill), the last Jedi, has disappeared. The First Order has risen again and is bent on destroying Luke and the Republic. Luke’s sister Leia Organa (Fisher) leads the Republic. Resistance fighter pilot Poe Dameron (Isaac) receives a map leading to Luke’s location, but just before he is captured by Kylo Ren (Driver) he manages to hide the map in his droid, which escapes, and is later discovered by scavenger Rey (Ridley). Later a Stormtrooper “Finn” (Boyega) helps Dameron escape and they go in search of the droid. Eventually Rey and Finn are met by Han Solo (Ford) and the three of them team up to find Luke.

Ford as Han Solo, and Chewbacca

I did not find anything great about the storyline; in fact, there isn’t one really. The film is just 135 minutes of more or less “video gaming”! Except for the occasional humour, the rest of the time someone is chasing the other and someone else is blowing something up. I felt that the writers could have developed the story a little more, with lesser elements of action. But the good thing that came out of it is the film puts 3D effects and other CGI to good use. All the scenes are dazzling to watch, as are the sets. The cinematography is top-notch.

Driver as Kylo Ren

I did expect the crowd to go wild when Harrison Ford, Hamill, Fisher and C-3PO appeared on the screen, and indeed they did. But whether it is actors who return to the series, or those who star for the first time, there was no opportunity for them to show their skills. Anyone could have played Han Solo in this film; I expected some scene or sequence that only Ford could have perfectly done, but with this amount of action, there wasn’t any. On the other hand, one plus point of the film is that the crew decided to go with the original format to show the opening crawl. And it was good to hear John Williams’ superb score.

The famous Star Wars opening crawl, accompanied
by John Williams' Star Wars: Main Theme

So while The Force Awakens revives the series by bringing back the old stars, as a film by itself, I felt it was quite entertaining, but could have been better in a lot of ways. As to whether one needs to see the first six films before watching Episode VII, I feel that as long as you know the characters well enough, you should be fine.

My Rating: 3/5
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 94%