Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review (No Spoilers)
In the documentary The People vs. George Lucas, I’m portrayed (somewhat out of context) as a psycho fan when I look at the camera and yell, “George, you must learn from your mistakes!” I was actually referring to the fact that Jar-Jar was back again in The Clone Wars animated series, but I did feel like Lucas was incapable of realizing just how bad he was ruining his franchise with the repeated mistakes of the prequels.
So, when Disney bought Lucasfilm, the first thing I had to say was, “The good news is, Disney bought Lucasfilm. The bad news is, Disney bought Lucasfilm.” I was thrilled that they were finally going to make the sequel I’d been waiting for for three decades, but I was pretty worried about what a Disneyfied Star Wars might look like. My fears have now been completely put to rest.
The fact is, J.J. Abrams seems to have learned from George Lucas’ mistakes in the prequels. Not only is the screenplay co-written by Lawrence Kasdan, who was (mostly) responsible for the script for the best film in the franchise, The Empire Strikes Back, Abrams has gone back to the entire feeling of the original trilogy (maybe a little bit too much in some cases, but I’ll save that for my later, spoilerish review). Gone are the overblown political situations and overdone CGI effects, the stilted dialogue, and the bad acting. The Force Awakens is the Star Wars of my childhood, with all of the fun action and adventure I remember.
It was thrilling to get back that feeling I had when I saw the original film thirteen times in the theater, something I had resigned myself to never feel again. While the screenwriter in me recognizes there are flaws in this film, the fan in me thought it was perfect.
Author Christopher J. Valin 