Film Review: The Force Awakens

Originally published December 18, 2019

The interesting thing about Star Wars: The Force Awakens is how it is both frustratingly unnecessary in a vacuum and the context of the broader saga and necessary in the context of The Last Jedi and presumably The Rise of Skywalker.

There’s no reason for this film to exist outside of the mountain of money it made Disney. The Star Wars films were, fundamentally, the story of Darth Vader. There were stories in the Star Wars universe that filled the world out beyond him, but the films were Darth Vader’s domain. As an attempt to broaden the scope of the films beyond him, The Force Awakens is…not always successful.

Thirty years ago, Force would have been an Heir to the Empire-style Expanded Universe novel. Its links to the first six episodes are tenuous at best and I could honestly do without the familial connection between Kylo and Han. The Emperor being a significant player from the top would have been a more compelling connection to the first six films than Kylo being Han and Leia’s kid. If Luke can survive a fall from a great height, then a full-fledged Sith Lord should survive no problem. The Emperor existing in Force wouldalso take care of Snoke, an underused and uninteresting character. Say what you will about the Emperor in Return of the Jedi, but at least he was interesting.

It also would have been more attractive on a metatextual level. Kylo taunting Rey about being “nobody” takes on a whole new meaning if he himself is a man raised from nothing.

Hell, many of my problems with Force as a straight-up movie stem from its lack of risk-taking adherence to A New Hope’s structure. The film is not edited all that interestingly either on a structural or moment-to-moment level. J.J. Abrams is too eager to introduce all of his characters right away. His eagerness and nostalgia-peddling take away from what could’ve been a well-plotted film that stayed close enough to Star Wars to assuage concerns while constructing the series in a new way.

Put Force in the context of the larger trilogy, however, and its connections became apparent. Force sets up parts of The Last Jedi some viewers hated. For example, Han pulls off quite a few tricks at light speed. He blasts out of a hangar at light speed and then jumps into the atmosphere of a planet at light speed. Keep that in mind when someone complains about Holdo’s light speed kamikaze in Last Jedi.

My problems with Force are less about the universe of Star Wars than its context as a Star Wars movie. It’s conservative, but it kinds of needs to be; Force is the Trojan horse for Last Jedi, a bolder and more exciting film that changes Star Wars mythos.

Final score: 6.3/10