THE MOST potent weapon at the box office in 2015 hasn’t been special effects or superheroes but nostalgia.
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| Hans Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) |
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (12A, 135mins)
Director: JJ Abrams
Stars: John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac, Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Domhnall Gleeson
The biggest blockbusters have dripped in it, giving adults the chance to relive formative movie experiences while the film also captures a new generation.
Jurassic World and Spectre were steeped in references to the earlier films, replaying exact scenes with a fresh twist, and now comes the biggest nostalgia trip of all: Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Writer-director JJ Abrams had one task: to bury memories of the awful prequels directed by George Lucas and make people fall in love with Star Wars again, thereby laying the groundwork for umpteen sequels and spin-offs; Disney paid £2.5billion for LucasFilm in 2012 and want a return.
The executives can rest easy. The Force Awakens delivers exactly what was required: a celebration of what everyone loves most about the original, including the return of all the key characters with enough new elements to keep it fresh and exciting.
You could almost argue that the picture is too reminiscent of the original. Parallels include a droid carrying a secret message, a character with serious daddy issues and a weapon just like the Death Star but 10 times the size. However, it is executed with such charm, brio and good humour you can only tip your hat to the filmmakers.
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| The Force Awakens is a celebration of what everyone loves most about the original |
It also contains one shocking plot development that elevates the film from mere homage to a vital new chapter in its own right, arriving at just the right moment when you are beginning to wonder if the picture will slough off the shadow of the original.
It’s at this point, about two thirds in, that The Force Awakens forges its own identity, creating enough reverberations to fuel another trilogy – and maybe even induce a tear.
Unlike the deathly dull, tortuously plotted prequels (who can forget the heart-sinking “crawl” at the start of The Phantom Menace, all about trade routes and taxation)
The Force Awakens goes back to basics with a pleasingly simple plot about good versus evil, propelled along by a mystery: where is Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill)?
The legendary Jedi is wanted by the First Order (the bad guys who have emerged from the ashes of the Evil Empire) as a vital scalp in their quest to crush the Resistance, the good guys who still do battle in X-wing fighters and wear red overalls.
In other words, despite the 30 years that have passed since Return Of The Jedi, not much in the galaxy has changed. What we do have are new personnel who are introduced in the rip-roaring opening section after the First Order lays waste to a village on the desert planet of Jakku, where a secret map to Luke’s whereabouts is located.
There is the dashing Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), “the best pilot in the Resistance”, who is attempting to retrieve the map plus two young new heroes thrust together by circumstance: Stormtrooper Finn (John Boyega), who feels uncomfortable siding with evil and pulls a runner from the First Order, and Rey (Daisy Ridley) a good-hearted “scavenger” who inadvertently comes into possession of the map.The likeable pair, played by virtual unknown British actors (this is Ridley’s movie debut) are a big reason for the film’s success. Boyega thrums with charisma and is delightfully gobby but no obvious hero; ruled by self-preservation he’s never far from breaking into a panicky sweat. For her part Rey is a strong and long-overdue heroine for the saga, with an intriguing past. Separated from her parents, whose return she still awaits longingly, she is resourceful, self-sufficient and brilliant at flying, engineering and making some of the more effortful dialogue (“remove the thermal oscillator”) sound riveting. On the dark side, we have Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) who is leading the search for Luke, a Darth Vader-like black helmeted villain who, as did Darth Vader, answers to a sinister overlord present as a hologram.Some of the biggest cheers at the screening I attended were for the return of old favourites, notably Hans Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), one of cinema’s great double acts, along with C3PO and R2D2 (the former babbling away pleasingly about “Master Luke”). Ford goes the full Hans. His wry performance, knowing without slipping into parody, is a joy and very funny. His exchanges with young upstart Finn, who he nicknames Big Deal, and old flame Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), now a General in the Resistance, are among the highlights. Fans will be in a distant galaxy with delight.The action and spectacle is first class. Visually, The Force Awakens demands multiple viewing such is the detail and the wondrous, contrasting vistas: epic desert landscapes; snowy, mountainous terrain reminiscent of The Empire Strikes Back and, of course, the galaxies. They will soon be echoing to the sound of box office records collapsing like an imploding Death Star.
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| Snoopy & Charlie Brown: A Peanuts Movie is delightfully animated in the original hand-drawn style |
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| Filmmakers have great affection for the characters |
Snoopy & Charlie Brown: A Peanuts Movie (U, 88mins)Voices: Noah Schnapp, Bill Melendez, Nostalgia for the 65-year-old comic strip by Charles M Schulz is conjured in heaps in Snoopy & Charlie Brown: A Peanuts Movie It is delightfully animated in the original hand-drawn style and brings a big smile to the face as we are introduced to the hapless Charlie Brown (Noah Schnapp) and his pals: security blanket-clutching Linus, mischievous Lucy and, of course, Snoopy. It’s clear the filmmakers (including Schulz’s son Craig Schulz, who is one of the three screenwriters) have great affection for the characters and the wry humour of the original shows that made them so popular. It’s the story that proves a disappointment. For a film aimed at young children, the filmmakers have rather bizarrely chosen to make a romance. Charlie Brown becomes fixated on new girl at school, Little Red-Haired Girl, and not having the courage to introduce himself he contrives various efforts to get her attention.It’s sweet enough but very thin, with Snoopy consigned to battling his nemesis The Red Baron in his daydreams. It’s not Snooze-py but nod off and you miss nothing.
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