Film Review: Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

It's about time someone made a good Star Wars movie. It's taken nearly forty years, but director J.J. Abrams has finally made an entry in this franchise that I could watch without wincing. To be fair, The Empire Strikes Back was pretty good, but that was because George Lucas handed the directing chores to Irvin Kershner, an old pro with a solid, if unspectacular, filmography. Three of the next four films were directed by Lucas and the results proved that George was something of an alchemist; he was able to turn the base metal of his negligible talent into box office gold.

As you may have guessed, I've never cared for the Star Wars films. I didn't see the original film until 1979, two years after it came out. I was twenty-two, had one year of film school under my belt, my favourite directors were Sidney Lumet and Sergio Leone, and I may have been a film snob. When I finally saw Star Wars I was astounded by the special effects and utterly gobsmacked by the bad acting, rubbish dialogue, and spastic action sequences. The subsequent films directed by Lucas added more proof to my conviction that he shouldn't be allowed near actors, a typewriter or a Panaflex camera.

The Force Awakens is, more or less, a reboot of the first film in the series, with the Death Star being upsized to a Death Planet. The Empire (now called the First Order) is a firm believer in the "go big or go home" adage when it comes to weapons of mass destruction, although after this latest expensive setback they'll probably be considering using Death Uber. Anyway, if you've seen the first one you've pretty much seen The Force Awakens. What makes this one such a pleasure is that is everything about the film that requires imaginative skill is done with wit, energy and professionalism. The acting is almost uniformly excellent, the script is smart, witty and lean, and Abrams, unlike Lucas, knows how to choreograph the non-space action scenes. The actors are led by Daisy Ridley as Rey, who I like to think of as Keira Knightley 2.0. That's a compliment. John Boyega as Finn, the renegade strormtrooper, was a revelation to me. I hated him in Attack the Block, but here he steals just about every scene he's in. Harrison Ford is reliably grumpy and cocky. And all the actors get dialogue that's blissfully unclunky and frequently funny

One aspect of the previous films that remains untouched is the determined avoidance of anything to do with sexuality or romantic relationships. The Stars Wars universe is a chaste universe, almost Victorian, in fact. Across the seven films in the franchise there's been some mild flirting, a very few kisses, and only one out and out romance: the union between Annakin and Padme that results in Luke's birth. This last episode is also notorious as perhaps the most badly written, acted and directed section in any of the films. You get the feeling Lucas hated having to film this subject matter. Not that Lucas is a prude. His American Graffitti is all about rambunctious teenage hormones. What Lucas probably realized was that part of the appeal of his films was that they offer a universe free from the angst, terror, tension and embarrassment of desire. This is a universe in which the characters (and the audience) only have to be concerned with issues of bravery, loyalty, resourcefulness, and derring-do. No one worries about being popular or loved. I think this is the ingredient x that made these films such a massive hit with the 8-24 demographic. Star Wars was, and is, their "safe place," a world that offers a holiday from the scary land of personal relationships.

There are some problems. The latest R2D2 iteration, a droid called BB-8, apparently comes with an algorithm that forces it to do something cute every second time it appears on screen. This got old very fast and for the next film I hope our lovable little droid is clubbed into scrap with the cold, dead body of an Ewok. The chief bad guy and Darth Vader fanboy is Kylo Ren, who (SPOILER AHEAD) turns out to be the son of Han Solo and Princess Leia. This seems like a colossal case of bad parenting, but the whole issue is kind of glossed over. Oh well, every family's got to have at least one world-destroying megalomaniac with a helmet fetish. Finally, Oscar Isaac gets the role of Poe Dameron, a gung ho fighter pilot who whoops and hollers as he goes into combat. You get the idea that his role will be expanded in the next film, but what they're starting with is pretty poor. Poe is a grab bag of cliches, and it wastes Isaac's talents in a big way. Also, what's up with that name? Am I missing some in-joke or connection to Con Air? The Nicolas Cage character in that film was named Cameron Poe. Is this a hint that Cage will be the big reveal in the next film? Will he be pulling off a helmet and announcing that he's somebody's long-lost relative? Please let him be Han Solo's younger, crazier, weird-ass brother--Charlie Solo.

Film Review: Attack the Block (2011)

The expression old wine in new bottles pretty much sums up Attack the Block. The old wine is an invasion of bad-tempered aliens into a small, isolated, tight-knit community. The community's most fearless members must band together to resist and defeat the toothy visitors from space. In a nutshell, this is the plot of many alien incursion/mutant critter films from the 1950s. The new bottle is that the community is a slummy South London apartment block instead of a town in the American southwest, and the fearless locals are a feral gang of teenage muggers. There's even a stoner who doubles for the all-knowing scientist figure found in the '50s versions of Attack. The stoner's gained his knowledge from an addiction to the Discovery Channel.

The film begins on Guy Fawkes night with fireworks going off in every direction. Some of the fireworks come down from space and they contain creatures that resemble eyeless, extra-furry, extra-large chimps with glow-in-the-dark teeth. The illuminated teeth are a very nice touch. The first critter to hit the ground is savagely dispatched by Moses, the leader of a small gang of boys who are barely into their teens. The gang has just finished mugging a young nurse. It turns out the first alien was a female in heat, and her scent has attached itself to the gang, who find themselves besieged in their apartment block (the Wyndham Tower; a knowing nod to the very British alien invasion novels by John Wyndham) by a few dozen irate space chimps. Some of the gang live, some die, and the aliens get a proper kicking.

Attack is consistently entertaining simply as an Us vs. Them sci-fi thriller. The pace is good, there are some good gags, and the aliens are a pleasant change from the usual scaly, slimy visitors from space we see in this kind of movie. It's a pity, though, that Joe Cornish, doubling as director and scirptwriter, succumbs to the usual white middle-class (in Joe's case upper class) guilt when it comes to the gang. When we first meet them they seem like every urbanite's nightmare: armed, hoody-wearing visible minorities intent on relieving white people of mobile phones and cash. And, initially, that's exactly what they are. Cornish quickly shows us that underneath the cursing, thievery and threats of violence they're mostly sweet kiddos who just happen to be a bit rough around the edges. And when called upon they're brave, resourceful, and self-sacrificing. It's a pleasing myth for audiences to believe that bad guys, once you get to know them, are actually a thoroughly decent bunch of chaps. It might have been more interesting if the gang's utter ruthlessness and taste for violence was what won the day, not their innate nobleness. Imagine if the aliens had landed and encountered Alex and his droogs? Now there's a sequel I'd like to see.

Attack had a Dr Who vibe that I found enjoyable; it doesn't take itself at all seriously and it's as eager to please as a puppy. The one major flaw is the acting. The actors playing the gang members are decidedly mediocre. What's worse is that John Boyega, who plays Moses and is the hero of the story, is the poorest of the bunch. Chuck Norris has more dramatic range than Boyega. The film's energy and tension suffers noticeably due to the am-dram acting.