Review: Star Wars – The Force that's AWAKENING the world

The world is holding its breath for the new Star Wars film

THE BETS are off. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is going to be the biggest film of the year and almost certainly the biggest in history.

The first Star Wars movie in 10 years (after the successful but unloved prequels), The Force Awakens has whipped up inter-galactic levels of fervour, promising to recapture the charm and character of the much-cherished originals while introducing exciting new elements.

Producer Kathleen Kennedy says: "It's sort of like going to a concert where you want to hear the new stuff that they've written, but really you want to hear some of the old songs.

"And we're in a similar kind of thing: we're getting the band back together, we know that people are going to want to be reminded of the things they love but they're going to expect to have a new experience."

The thing that I was feeling the most when we were auditioning Daisy was that she could be the face of the new Star War

JJ Abrams, director

Old favourites are back (Harrison Ford as Han Solo, Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker and Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia, plus R2D2 and C-3PO) alongside intriguing new characters who are set to make superstars of a pair of almost unknown young British actors, Daisy Ridley and John Boyega.

Boyega, 23, from Peckham in south London, is best known to audiences from 2011's Attack The Block but Ridley, 23, has never before made a film. The London-raised daughter of a photographer father and bank communications manager mother, she landed the leading role after auditioning on a whim when she heard director JJ Abrams was looking for an unknown.

"I immediately got this weird feeling all over my body. I knew I had to be seen for it," Daisy says of her date with destiny.

 

Her only previous roles were on television in the likes of Mr Selfridge and Silent Witness.

Now she is set to be the poster girl of the relaunched franchise in the key role of Rey, a "scavenger" who lives alone in a ship graveyard on the desert planet of Jakku and becomes a key resistance fighter.

"The thing that I was feeling the most when we were auditioning Daisy was that she could be the face of the new Star Wars," says Abrams.

She will be the first female protagonist in the series' history, a fact partly attributed to the success of The Hunger Games movies starring Jennifer Lawrence.

Kennedy says it is about time: "In 2015 there was no scenario in which we weren't going to bring balance to the way we tell these stories. And Daisy had a physicality and a self-confidence that was so important to the character we were looking for. She epitomises that optimism where anything is possible."

Of her on-screen alter ego Ridley says: "She's cool and smart and she can look after herself. Young girls can look at her and know they can wear the trousers if they want to. They don't have to show off their bodies."

 



Harrison Ford makes a return as Hans Solo

Her only previous roles were on television in the likes of Mr Selfridge and Silent Witness.

Now she is set to be the poster girl of the relaunched franchise in the key role of Rey, a "scavenger" who lives alone in a ship graveyard on the desert planet of Jakku and becomes a key resistance fighter.

"The thing that I was feeling the most when we were auditioning Daisy was that she could be the face of the new Star Wars," says Abrams.

She will be the first female protagonist in the series' history, a fact partly attributed to the success of The Hunger Games movies starring Jennifer Lawrence.

Kennedy says it is about time: "In 2015 there was no scenario in which we weren't going to bring balance to the way we tell these stories. And Daisy had a physicality and a self-confidence that was so important to the character we were looking for. She epitomises that optimism where anything is possible."

Of her on-screen alter ego Ridley says: "She's cool and smart and she can look after herself. Young girls can look at her and know they can wear the trousers if they want to. They don't have to show off their bodies."

 

Boyega plays Finn, a Stormtrooper who defects from the nefarious New Imperial Order and teams up with Rey and a Resistance pilot called Poe Dameron played by Oscar Isaac. He landed the role after an agonising seven months of auditions.

"It was like The X Factor but without the TV show around it. It was intense," says Boyega, whose parents came to Britain from Nigeria. He got his acting break after being scouted by Theatre Peckham and given a scholarship.

Boyega cried when he first read the script: "I'm not really a big crier but Finn is so great," he says. "He's like a heightened Hollywood leading man version of myself. And he's quirky and charismatic and funny. For me, he was the best character in the script."

In casting unknowns, Abrams is deliberately echoing the original whose only famous cast member was Alec Guinness: "That's something I remember loving about the original trilogy; not having seen these people before," says Abrams, a lifelong Star Wars fan who created TV shows Alias and Lost and directed the most recent Star Trek films. 

“They needed to be actors whom the audience could discover as these characters, not as actors they’d seen elsewhere.”

Daisy Ridley as the rebellious Rey, with former Stormtrooper John Boyega

Alongside Ridley and Boyega, Hamill, Ford and Fisher reunite in a story that takes place 30 years after the events of 1983’s Return Of The Jedi that ends with the evil Emperor’s death.

Bringing them back was one of the hooks which lured in Abrams when Kennedy approached him about directing the film.

Initially he was deeply sceptical about taking on such a beloved series, not least beloved by Abrams himself. "I cared about it so much and I felt I'd much rather just go and see it than have to figure out what it would be," he says.

He saw the 1977 original aged 11 and was affected by it in much the same way millions of young people were. "I just remember going into the theatre and coming out with a larger imagination," he says.

"It was so funny and so sweet and had such a big heart. It was all about the underdog and it was a thrilling, rousing, emotional, funny adventure.

And it looked 100 per cent real."

 

The film was not just revolutionary for its groundbreaking effects but for its unashamed sense of fun in an era of gritty dramas and thrillers; and for its sincere approach to a mythic, good-versus-evil narrative.

When Abrams met with Kennedy he "fully expected to gratefully pass on the movie" he says. However, when it became apparent that he would have a free hand with the story and could revisit the original's iconic characters he was unable to resist.

"Where is Han Solo? What happened to Leia? Is Luke alive? These questions started to percolate and I found myself thrown completely by this visceral hunger to be part of this world."

The reason Abrams had a free hand is because creator George Lucas had finally relinquished control of his multi-billion-dollar baby. In 2012, ready to retire, he sold Lucasfilm to Disney for nearly £3billion. He was also jaded by the hostile response to his Star Wars prequels The Phantom Menace, Attack Of The Clones and Revenge Of The Sith.

Kennedy stayed on as president of Lucasfilm and under her guidance Disney fast-tracked a new Star Wars film and several spin-offs which are already underway, include Rogue One directed by Briton Gareth Edwards (Godzilla).

 

Under huge pressure to meet a summer 2015 deadline (subsequently pushed back to December) Abrams produced a draft in three months with Lawrence Kasdan who co-wrote The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi.

By all accounts what they produced is a glorious blend of old and new, set to launch little-known Boyega and Ridley to stratospheric stardom.

As Robert Downey Jnr, Boyega's new best friend, emailed to Boyega a few weeks ago: "How are you feeling about Armageddon?" You can't fight the Force.