In a Blog Posting Far, Far Away...

I love Star Wars. Anytime I see the original three movies, I am transported back in time to a golden childhood era when my bedsheets, lunchbox, and underoos were covered with Luke, Han, and Leia.  

 I would gather together the neighborhood kids to act out Star Wars adventures- taking the part of C3PO whenever possible- Leia if we couldn't find any girls game enough to join. I built a Dagobah set in my bookshelf with Play Doh, a crayon box, and some green toilet paper. I even wrote a letter to the main office of the toy company, Kenner, requesting replacement guns, lightsabers, and capes for my action figures who had lost theirs in the dirtpile out back of the house. I was swept up in the cultural lovefest for the franchise and felt part of something bigger than my Kansas backyard. The Force was with me. I love Star Wars.

I preface this post with that backstory because when I say I love Star Wars, I mean I love it with that corner of my heart that will always retain my first experience of sheer glee at seeing the film at age 5. I am not saying these movies are good from a critical standpoint.

Case in point- the prequels. Maybe the kids who saw The Phantom Menace, The Clone Wars, and The Revenge of the Sith have CGI halcyon memories of these movies like I had of the originals. But when I saw them, I felt like George Lucas had opened up my childhood Darth Vader action figure case and taken a dump in it. There was a dour, seriousness to the prequels that no matter how many new weird-faced aliens, Architectural Digest rip-off worlds, or Yoda lightsaber battles got thrown in, I was exhausted by the effort, and unimpressed with the bloated results. We needed three epic-length movies to tell how Darth Vader became Darth Vader? I prefer thinking he was just an a**hole from the Dark Side with some skin irritation and a fetish for face grills. Not even fine actors like Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor or Samuel L. Jackson could breathe life into the turgid scripts. The magic I'd idolized was squandered.

So when it was announced that JJ Abrams was going to do the next chapter in the Star Wars saga, I was at the very least, skeptical. Abrams did a nice job re-booting the Star Trek movie series, but was he the guy to do Star Wars? Should anyone be the guy to re-do Star Wars? Would the fact that George Lucas had nothing to do with it help? Since the entire world went to see the movie opening weekend (and kept going back), I put off seeing the film in the hopes that I wouldn't have to run into anyone dressed as Jar-Jar Binks. I did my best to avoid every Star Wars Facebook post so as not to accidentally ingest a spoiler and finally went to the majestic Ziegfeld Theater last Friday. I sat back with a couple good friends (friends who knew that C3PO was my spirit robot), my 3D glasses, some popcorn, and Perrier (my childhood self would have loved the fanciness of Perrier) and waited to see if the Star Wars film empire could strike back. It did.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is something quite astonishing. It feels like a Star Wars movie. Maybe it's the inclusion of the original cast in meaningful parts (I literally squealed aloud when C3PO made his appearance). Maybe it's the John Williams score that weaves in the musical themes intrinsic to the originals.

Maybe it's the use of models instead of faster than light CGI so we feel like craftsmen put real sweat and tears into the film instead of into green screens and Macbooks. Maybe it's the color palette that seems so familiar- with the sands of Jakku filling in for Tatooine and the jungle outpost of Maz Kanata a soft, green counterpart to the forests of Yavin.  Maybe it's the plot that while jumpstarting a saga of its own, feels so familiar with all sorts of parallels that I won't go into so no one will accuse me of being a spoiler queen. The plot similarities have caused some to decry the movie- but honestly- maybe it's my PTSD from the prequels- I welcomed a return to form, even if the form was very similar. Whatever it is, there is the feeling that the transition from Return of the Jedi to The Force Awakens is seamless.

The new stars of the film (Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, and Adam Driver) are all really engaging. One of my friends thinks Driver's petulantly villainous Kylo Ren should get an Oscar nom. (Not gonna happen.) Even the new robot BB-8 rolls and bleeps into our hearts much like his predecessor R2D2 did almost forty years ago. Abrams has brought this Star Wars into our more multi-cultural world by showing that women and African-Americans can be part of this worldwide touchstone and I applaud that. Now if Poe Dameron is really as gay as rumored, we'll be good to go.

The Force Awakens feels like a visit from an old friend.
An old friend I haven't seen for awhile.
A friend I've missed.