Scottish Catholic Observer

Now that the moratorium on social media is over regarding Star Wars: The Force Awakens, time to write a review that does the film and the franchise justice. May the force be with me.

In one word: Epic.

In one line: Disney does no ruin the franchise.

Make no mistake, this is a sci-far war film designed to please fans of George Lucas’ original 1970s-1980s trilogy, appease critics of the prequels and appeal to the current generation of video gamers who expect the highest standard of graphics. In the hands of JJ Abrams, how could it go wrong? Well the film’s loyalty to the original trilogy is perhaps its greatest strength and its greatest weakness. Yet rebooting the franchise with a mixture of original and new actors is genius and, given the CGI advances since the 1970s, the film is a joy to behold.

In spite of criticism of the screen time for original cast members compared to new stars, every role is pivotal to the plot. There are plot twists and surprises, there is laughter (by the bucket load), tension and tears. There are questions answered and unanswered.

While nothing will be able to strike fear into the heart of my 6-year-old self like the first appearance of the ‘evil’ Darth Vader on screen in 1977 accompanied by his epic theme music in THX (invented for the film), evil has a more reasonable persona in the new film, leaving scope for the battle between the light and dark to well and rage in the films to come no doubt. The Christian themes of the struggle between good and evil, and the duality of human nature, remain at the heart of The Force Awakens, however.

The cinematography is breathtaking, the acting over-the-top as required (no sign of of the naturalisation seen in other recent Hollywood remakes of 70s and 80s ‘classics’) and the film score is just perfect.

The violence at the beginning and end of The Force Awakens bring a very human quality to the life and death situations and warrants the 12A certificate.

Harrison Ford (below), Mark Hamil and Carrie Fisher still get top billing in this new film, in spite of stellar performances by John Boyega,  Oscar Isaac,  Daisy Ridley (above) and  Adam Driver. Ultimately the real star of this film, however, is the BB-8 droid (above), just as R2-DR stole the show in the original movie. Can a droid win an Academy Award?

I dare anyone in the Catholic community to not respond to the line ‘the force be with you,’ by saying ‘and also with you.’

BY BETH THOMSON