Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens PG 13
(Major Spoilers). JJ Abrams directs the seventh installment in the Star Wars franchise and takes to the desert planet Jakku running as a rebel character meets with an old man and is given a secret map to the location of a missing Luke Skywalker.
The First Order descends on the base and destroys the village looking for the map, but the rolling 'mech' droid BB8 has already disappeared with it into the night. Then a black clad figure with shiny goggles and a hood tries to get the information out of the Resistance pilot. Unable to do this, he takes him back to the black menacing star destroyer class ship in orbit.
Back on the ship, one of the storm troopers, now trained and not cloned, has a crisis of conscience and decides to free the pilot who had been captured from the evil Kylo Ren's torture center. Kylo is the apprentice of a previous dark lord called Snoke, who is immediately shown via a hologram.
The storm trooper and the rebel escape in a stolen tie fighter, which is painted all black, but it is shot down over Jakku. The trooper has chosen a name, Fin, based on his number, FN2187, which the rebel had quickly chosen for him. Fin could be, but likely isn't, the son or relative of Lando from the series.
Inter playing through this is the story of Rey, a young female force sensitive scavenger who trades in a junk yard that is literally a city on the planet. She crosses paths with Fin in a village shopping area when the storm troopers return looking for the droid, which she has since befriended, as luck would have it. Fin and Rey have instant chemistry and banter back and forth. It is evident right off the Rey is force sensitive and can do things because she has a gift from that, like Anakin in the prequels.
Then having shown the whole card, spoilers abounding, Snoke reveals that Kylo Ren is in fact the son of Han Solo and Leia Organa, really sooner than he should have, but it's done. Then Kylo reveals he has kept Grandpa Vader's melted helmet and skull in his cabin! That's not even some Daddy issues, but some Hamlet going on there, and some Greek tragedy too, as there is some Prometheus and Icarus falls from grace going on. (Spilers).
Kylo is also a hothead and spends the movie getting physically mad at his inaffective troops, made that way because he's a rather conflicted evil leader. This descendant of Anakin is far more realized and interesting than the original, and it makes sense. It seems there's a little Kevin Smith Star War lecture in here. (He's credited with some of this jazz in the credits, which later I was not surprised to see, as it sounded like he and JJ had a chat).
Back on Jakku, Fin and Rey try to fleet the storm troopers and tie fighters coming after them by stealing about a trashed Corellian freighter. Yes, that freighter! The Millennium Falcon is back up and running and flies off, avoiding the enemy by chasing through a downed super star destroyer. (It is a beautifully fully realized set that I had seen online before the film was done buck could not discuss till now)!
The Falcon is later captured in deep space by a larger cargo ship held up by two gangs of pirates, and then suddenly the pirate leader appears! He's Han Solo! Chewbacca is also there! Old Han takes back the ship after some banter, but they have to fight off the pirates that are after his sorry hide first. Fortunately, there are some Rathrats (Chulutlu, or whatnot, a nice touch and a nod to scifi monsters, even if cheesy), on the ship and they accidentally let them out to fight the other gangs. They escape at light speed which destroys the bigger ship.
Then later the evil First Order plots to destroy all resistance from the New Rebulic and their new planets, not including Coruscant, by arming their glorious new Star Killer base planet ship. (Luke Starkiller was the original name of Luke). Also it's nice to know JJ has read my books and included a Tahdemis class Diadem in his movie, although he got how it worked wrong).
The Falcon then journeys to a green planet to find an alien bar where a little orange force sensitive alien tries to give Rey the light saber from Cloud City that Luke dropped 35 years earlier, (and lost a hand), but the planet is shortly under attack by the First Order and decimated. The Resistance rescues them and leading them is General Organa!
Han has little choice then but to find his ex-wife, Leia, and return to the Resistance, which formerly had worked for the New Republic, but recently broke off during the nod to the video games. (JJ didn't make the books canon but did the video games). They still need the map. C3PO and a dormant Artoo are there.
The showdowns in the movie include Han and Kylo, Finn and Kylo and thrn Rey and Kylo, while the planet ship thing is being attacked. The editing there is a bit weird, but it works, even if there';s no way they got inside and outside so quickly.
The movie hits all the right notes and pays homage without literally being a retread. Sure there is really no foreshadowing about Han and Kylo, but the rest is solid, and it has a lot of practical effect, emotion and character development. JJ seems more suited to Star Wars than he was Star Trek. Adam Driver plays a good villain. Daisy Ridley is solid as a sort of Luke relative, archetype. (She is likely Kylo's cousin and Luke's daughter, but it is not said).
Harrison Ford got his wish from long ago when he wanted his character to die. Also his son makes sense as you figure he and Leia can't raise a normal kid. He's going to be messed up.
Review by Adam Browne
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