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(To Be 18 Again)…SPOILERS

It’s been a month or so since Star Wars: The Force Awakens(which I will henceforth call TFA) arrived in Theaters. Those who know me, know me as a Star Wars fan from an early age. I spent a good portion of my young life watching my edited for Television versions of the films that we had taped off of the TV. I would watch them over and over again. Never tiring of hearing the same old lines of dialogue and seeing the same old faces. I spent my play time, pretending that Boba Fett had used his rocket pack to escape the sarlaac pit(the real sarlaac pit, not that Audrey 2 looking thing from the remastered version). I used a flashlight handle as a lightsaber, and put on my snow boots and rode my bike pretending I was a Scout Trooper. In Jr.High and High School I played Star Wars card games and RPG’s. I read the extended universe books(which are no longer cannon), like “Shadow of the Empire” while listening to a soundtrack made specially for the book. I could go on, but the point is I was invested.

In 1999 a little film called “The Phantom Menace” opened in theaters. I was 18, still a boy but almost a man, a man possibly on the verge of great things. We’ll never know what those great things may have been, and that’s all thanks to “The Phantom Menace”. I waited in line for hours, for the midnight showing, full of youthful exuberance and completely unaware of the utter disappointment that awaited me inside the theater. Thankfully during our showing of the film, a hapless, but brave, Raccoon sacrificed itself for our safety by getting fried in the power transformer for the Theater, shutting down the film and saving us from the trauma that was Jar Jar.

The reasons that the prequels are bad are many, and they’ve been rehashed for a long time. The fact is we were all waiting for something to come along and get that taste out of our mouths. I say mission accomplished.

This year seemed like their were a few movies made almost exclusively for me, Jurassic World for instance. If there’s a film I love more than Star Wars it’s Jurassic Park. Jurassic World, though no where near TPM levels of disappointment was not something I enjoyed. I felt as if I were being pandered to, and it made me feel dirty. Some might accuse TFA of doing the same thing, and I see their point, but the difference between the two is that TFA was an amazing film.

People of my generation and nerdly proclivity love to hate on stuff and love to be cynical about culture. I suppose I used to be that way, but it’s a crappy way to be. Taste is not universal and it doesn’t need to be. There are plenty of folks dooking all over TFA and they have the right but I think they’re withholding themselves from experiencing the joy that this movie brought me. Why did I love this movie so much, I’ll tell you why, with a lot of unnecessary words.

I’l start my actual review with a disclaimer: Star Wars is really more a visual thing for me. I care deeply for the characters and story, but it’s mostly the world created by the production design team and Ralph McQuarie that I really love. I think the same runs true for most films. In Empire for instance, the scenes in cloud city are wonderfully sad, and emotionally filmed, but the thing I love the best is how it looks. I always wanted to live there, or in some other 70’s version of how the future looked. This is A#1 reason for me why the prequels were bombs. They felt like they were made in one of those make your own music video machines at Six Flags. TFA(while using a lot of CGI) found a way using practical effects to make the world feel the same. I’m not kidding but I almost wept, (both times I saw it) when Rey was climbing around in the First Order hangar bay. It was gorgeous, and expansive, thats what I love about Star Wars.

George Lucas didn’t like it which proves a point to me. He doesn’t understand why people liked the films in the first place. He thought the film was too retro and derivative, which it may be, but so was Star Wars. he used to blather on and on about how this was him making a version of Flash Gordon or other Saturday morning serials.

Ok so on to the actual film. The great criticism of TFA is that it is essentially Episode IV. The plot is very similar for sure, as was the plot to ROTJ. I feel like this was necessary on several fronts. Firstly, it’s a safer bet. Lucas did not play it safe and we got what we got. Abrams, being a fan, knows why people like the films and he played it a bit safe. For a first movie I think it’s a great idea, maybe not the most exciting thing artistically, but when revamping a franchise its a good thing. To me a theme of the SW universe is repetition and the back and forth of the dark and light. Lucas was hugely influenced by Joseph Campbell and his writings on mythology. I feel like this feel really grabs ahold of those concepts. The similarities are not just mimicry, they serve a purpose.

The theme and idea that I most enjoyed from this film was one that specifically deals with Kylo Ren(who I loved). We live in an age when terrorism and religion collide and our lives(especially in relation to terrorism) are affected by the religious understandings of a very specific group of folks in the Middle East. Interpretation of the past is one of the themes, that I saw most strongly in this film, and I’ll link the two together shortly. Kylo Ren never knew his Grandfather, Darth Vader, and has to know that he ultimately turned from the darkside. In spite of this he still seeks to follow in the footsteps of Vader and not Anakin. What information is he missing? It seems as if interpretation is the big issue here. The First Order is full of young people who were not a part of the Empire, yet they look very similar and they have similar goals, they are attempting to replicate something that they were not a part of and there is always some sort of degradation that has to be fought against. I, myself am a Christian, passionate about my faith and about the history of the Church, and even I can’t deny that they further we get away from something the harder it is to make sure we know whats going on. The Church attempted through councils and creeds to preserve it’s doctrine and practice. We’re dealing with the same issue with ISIS, men attempting to relive the glory days of Islam in they way that they see it. I’m not making a statement about Islam at all, I’m simply saying that these men are attempting to relieve and recreate something that they were not a part of. Kylo Ren and the First Order are both recreating something imperfectly, just as the Empire did. Palpatine was far removed form the glory days of the Sith, yet he attempts to recreate that glory in his own way.

I’m sure as we find out more about all of the characters that this theme will resurface. I found it to be very intriguing and captivating.

Rey, Finn and Poe are wonderfully written characters that I already care about. Daisy Ridley’s performance as Rey was amazing, a real pleasure to watch. The old stalwarts were on their game and it did my heart well to see them together again. I think Han’s death made clear the fact that Harrison Ford was done with Star Wars, but I think it worked really well with Ren’s story. I really do love that character, such a temperamental child in a man’s body, also he looked pretty rad. All in all I loved this film and I can’t wait to see what Rian Johnson will do with the next one. They’ve worked hard at creating some great questions that I can’t wait to find out the answers to.

If you’ve finished this “review” if you can call it that, I applaud you. You came here for a review of Star Wars and got an answer to an essay question…what was the question again?

Reviewed by: Andrew Staff on January 16, 2016