The Nerd (Re-)Awakens

Like most of the entire planet, I saw the new Star Wars film this weekend. Here's my review, by which I really mean rambling thoughts. Warning: Herein there be super duper huge major spoilers and a whole lotta feels.

Holy parallelism, Batman. The parallels to the original film, Star Wars: A New Hope, are strong with this one. While this has been possibly the biggest critique of the film, I personally loved the parallels. Some of them were obvious (I mean, they basically destroyed the Death Star via a trench run for the THIRD TIME), but a lot of them were expertly subtle. For me, all of them hit exactly the right note. Rey's story mirrored Luke's, just as Poe's did Leia's and Finn's did Han's. 

Speaking of Han...while it's not exactly surprising he's the Obi-Wan in this film, given Harrison Ford's attitude about participating in the Star Wars franchise, it was still absolutely devastating to see him taken out of any future movies, especially by his own son. From the moment Leia told him to bring Kylo Ren/Ben home, I had a sick feeling he was a goner that only increased when he went back into the base with Chewie. And yet I still sat squirming in my seat during his and Vader 2.0's scene, naively hoping that maybe the wayward Solo would change his mind and return to the light this movie in a bizarre twist. That right there is some movie magic! 

Still, I'm sure Ford/Han will be greatly missed in the subsequent movies. Han Solo was already an iconic character and fan favorite, and Ford delivered a great reprise performance, complete with arguably the funniest line in the whole film: "That's not how the Force works!" But, as that entire exchange with Finn about his previous stormtrooper duties (sanitation—I'm still laughing) proved, he really did what he was meant to do: Shepherd in the new cast to blend the old and new in a way I really doubt Carrie Fisher or Mark Hamill would have been able to do.  

While Fisher did a fine job, I'm hoping we see more of Leia in the next two movies so I can really judge her repeat performance. Carrie Fisher is an amazing lady, but she sounds like she's smoked a pack a day since Jedi stopped filming (which she probably has) and overall I felt very neutral about her appearance in The Force Awakens. Same with Mark Hamill's threeish minutes back as Luke Skywalker, though that's to be expected. I was afraid we wouldn't see him at all, so getting a glimpse him back in the role was tantalizing, as I'm sure was intended.

Confession time: Probably the nerdiest thing I've ever done is read Star Wars expanded universe books. Specifically the New Jedi Order series and those that followed (Legacy of the Force, Fate of the Jedi). These series were all about Luke, Leia and Han and their children, chronicling events that took place post-Return of the Jedi. Once the Star Wars franchise was sold to Disney, all of these books were declared non-canonical. (It's now being called "Legends.") As someone who invested hundreds of hours and dollars in the expanded universe, I had a lot of mixed feelings when I found out the new film was doing away with it all. On the one hand, I thought it was kind of shitty that these movies wouldn't follow the established storyline, since, you know, it was all...established. At the same time, I did feel some stirrings of hope, because to be fair, the established storyline and the characters therein were not great. Definitely mediocre at best.

So as to not form any opinions before seeing the film, I purposely learned as little as possible about the new characters that were in a sense replacing the ones I'd been familiar with for years. After meeting Rey, Finn, Poe and Kylon Ren, I'm admitting that it was indeed a good idea for them to do away with Jaina, Jacen and Anakin Solo and Ben Skywalker.

Finn and Poe are great characters and well-acted, but I'm most enamored with Rey. Movies frequently feature a "strong female," but their roles exist only to further the stories of the male characters (*cough* Black Widow *cough). Amazingly, Rey's role goes beyond being a badass with one-liners about how she doesn't need her hand held. She is the Luke of this new trilogy, and she is the new cast member the story will truly take shape around. She's the one whose parentage is being intensely speculated about. She's the one who has crazy powers and goes to find Luke. While it seemed at first like Finn would be the character embarking on the Hero's Journey, Rey's besting of Kylo Ren, not once, but twice, proves that it's her all the way. Hell. Effing. Yeah. 

On the subject of the new big bad: My personal jury is out for now on the First Order and Supreme Leader Snoke (at this point, I'm hoping he's a puppet or lackey for a more impressive evil-doer), but I did especially appreciate Kylo Ren/Ben Solo, partially because when did I start finding Adam Driver so sexy?! but mostly because to me it seemed the filmmakers borrowed from the expanded universe. While this Ben is Leia's son and not Luke's, it's still a nice nod. The bigger similarity is that in the Legacy of the Force series, Jacen Solo falls to the dark side, like his grandfather before him. Because of this, I found the concept of an evil Solo son not only believable, but pleasantly familiar. I also felt like his little temper tantrums were a great nod to fan jokes about Anakin Skywalker's hissy fits—which, in the prequels, we were supposed to take seriously; in The Force Awakens, it's something to chuckle at, which is incredibly refreshing. 

In fact, the entire movie had a good deal of humor, while still managing to be epic and heartbreaking. It felt very Whedon-esque to me, though it still retained some of the classic Star Wars cheesiness. Though it's true that I went in with no-to-low expectations in order to be pleasantly surprised if the film didn't suck, I was more than pleasantly surprised, because the film was awesome. I encourage old fans to check it out, as I'm sure they will at least enjoy if not full-on love it. And I'm excited to see all the new fans The Force Awakens awakens. 

P.S.: If you pride yourself on being someone who has never seen Star Wars and doesn't care about it...I'm not mad about it, but I don't think you're a special snowflake. I just think you're lame.