I went to a press screening of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and am still reeling from the experience…
Image Credit: Disney
Star Wars first came out when I was a five years old, and I wasn’t allowed to watch it. I just knew that I wanted the two buns on the sides of my head like Princess Leia. I made up for lost time when I married HapaPapa and met his extended family full of Star Wars fanatics (remember our Land Speeder Pinewood Derby car?). At their gatherings, it’s not unusual to hear phrases like “these are not the droids you are looking for” randomly sprinkled in conversation. Now, I have watched the Star Wars movies — the first three and the sequels — time and time again, and we’re raising two boys in a house where you are likely to trip on a LEGO AT-AT walker or a pile of toy light sabers.
John Boyega and Daisy Ridley in Star Wars VII, Image Credit: Disney
This is a long way of saying that Star Wars history and metaphors are big in my family. And the traditions are carried on in The Force Awakens, the first movie in the new trilogy that takes place after The Return of the Jedi. Like the trilogies before it, The Force opens with a waif living on a dusty desert planet. Unlike Luke and Anakin, this time, the young person is a teen or 20-something woman named Rey (Daisy Ridley). With her long dark hair, high cheekbones and scrappy personality, she evokes Leia and Padme Amidala with a touch of Anakin’s recklessness.
Speaking of Leia, Carrie Fisher returns to the big screen as General Leia. With Harrison Ford is back as Han Solo, you can still see some embers of their old flame, along with some revelations about what has happened between them since the first trilogy. I think the mature Leia and older-but-not-necessarily-wiser Han storyline will really appeal to aging Gen Xers. Of course, Chewbacca, C3-PO and R2-D2 all come rolling in, as well as the new snowman-shaped BB8. There are many other nods to the old movies, such as a rusty spaceship Rey dismisses as “garbage”, but when the ship takes off, fans will recognize its distinctive shape. One-liner references to the original trilogy are sprinkled throughout the dialogue (to lots of laughter among the reporters and bloggers at the press screening I attended), and there are so many familiar faces walking on-screen that it could have the potential to feel like A Very Star Wars Reunion. Maybe because I’m a child of the 70s, but I thoroughly enjoyed the kitsch.
Carrie Fisher as General Leia in Star Wars VII, Image Credit: Disney
One way Star Wars: The Force Awakens brings a breath of fresh air to the franchise is through more diversity. Trailers and posters have featured John Boyega as rogue stormtrooper Finn (remember the Twitter outrage over the black storm trooper?) and there are some ethnic factions amid the fighters and a veritable Rainbow Coalition of bit actors amongst the Resistance forces. There is a particularly funny scene in which Finn removes his helmet to the surprise of onlookers. And I was a bit surprised by Oscar winning actress Lupita Nyong’o’s role. Not that all these representations are perfect, but I’ll save that story for another day…