Star Wars: The Force Awakens did not have the luxury, unlike A New Hope, of being born in a vacuum. The Force Awakens does not ask you to ignore the past (at least not episodes 4–6), but begs you to remember, and relive it. A New Hope in particular seems to have served as its wellspring of influence, to which it returns time and time again. Without going into synopsis mode, there is The First Order (the Empire), the Republic Resistance (rebel scum), the desert planet Jakku (Tatooine), the escaped BB-8 droid with a map to the mythical hermit Jedi Luke Skywalker (R2 with the Death Star plans), the Starkiller (Death Star), Kilo Ren (Darth Vader), Han and Chewie (Han and Chewie), etc.
In the context of what we, the audience, casual and hardcore alike, wanted, it’s hard to blame the film for such a reliance on retread. We’ve been burned before. There are, however, some new elements here, some things we’ve never seen. A minor force trick by the villainous Kilo Ren in the first act is of special note. The defected Stormtrooper Finn (John Boyega) has potential to present a new character type—a bad-guy-turned-good for once, rather than the other way around.
But on the whole, The Force Awakens feels like a do-over for the prequels; a chance to start over. And J.J. Abrams was the perfect choice for director. His liberal borrowing from Episode IV in plot, look, and feel is coupled with his grasp of storytelling and rhythm, especially in the balance between levity and drama. If Episode IV was a template for what to do, equally were the prequels for what not to do. Gone are the green-screened CGI backgrounds (or at least now they’re seamless); real sets, costumes, makeup, animatronics and props add an immeasurable level of depth and immersion. If you groan at the suspiciously familiar cantina on Takodana, or the monstrous Rathtars (even sounds like Rancor), just remember that there is a welcome lack of flipping and spinning in the lightsaber duels. And though there is an impossibly apt emo Kilo Ren Twitter account, it doesn’t contradict that he’s the Anakin we wanted all along, and the emotional arc of his story still hits hard where Anakin’s devolves into histrionics. The Force Awakens isn’t the perfect Star Wars movie—that one has already been made—but in the context of what Star Wars has come to be in the 21st century, it is the best that it could be.
