THAT NAGGING DÉJÀ VU FEELING WE HAD ALL BEEN WAITING FOR
4:35 AM"How sad and bad and mad it was – but then, how it was sweet!" - Robert Browning
Has the intangibly
omnipresent Force, Leia’s crown plait, Luke’s squeakily clean good guy image
and the whimsical twinkle in Han’s eyes survived the noughties in hibernation? Writing
a review for the latest instalment of the conglomerate known as the Star Wars is
in many ways a superfluous exercise. Those who plan to see it, will do their
best to keep away from any reviews in order to steer away from spoilers. All the rest who have seen it, have probably already formed a strong opinion which
will not be shaken by a bunch of carefully chosen words or have given up trying
keep up with the incessant flow of reviews on this matter. Regardless, as
absurd is the essence of life, here it comes.
The problem with the series of films which have become to define the world “cult” in the contemporary world is that it is awfully hard to distinguish where the cult ends and awesomeness begins. You cannot consider the film in isolation without the “burden” and backdrop of decades of adventures many of which are bound to evoke a sense of nostalgia for the greener-grassed past. The crow’s feet in the corners of the eyes of the main characters instantly remind the viewers of the times when they weren’t there, adding gravitas to everything they do. The character development for Han Solo, Leia and Luke might not have been as careful and well-defined as for the contemporary idols of screenwriting Don Draper or Walter White, but the amount of time invested in their development throughout decades adds a similarly iconic halo to them. Thus, even the most inane of actions performed by the main characters is sprinkled with gold dust but not because of their own inner brilliance but the strongly-rooted history of success engrained in everything they do. Due to this, all opinions voiced on this matter are subject to strong conditioning from the past which is why the film itself is in many ways irrelevant to the criticism or praise it receives.
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| When art imitates art |
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| Eeeeee.....va? |
Despite all that, the whole
film evokes a strong sense of déjà vu. A hero (or heroine as the times have a’changed)
discovering a massive golden spoon in his/her mouth and learning to fight evil
while shacking up with a band of merry men who bear an eerie resemblance to the
company Dorothy used to keep in “The Wizard of Oz” is awkwardly similar to a
retelling of the adventure Luke Skywalker embarked on in 1977. It’s the new
kind of safe formula to follow the prequel after the sequel. The number of
archetypical stories available for adjustments is widely known to be finite but
a whiff of adventurous creativity rather than the stale smell of nostalgia
would have elevated the film from a good Star Wars film to a good film overall.
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| May the Force be with you! |
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens”
delivers what it promises – a whopping two hours and fifteen minutes of light
entertainment which doesn’t offend but doesn’t elevate your senses either.
Beautifully executed flight and fight sequences are worthy of being entered
into the canon of greatness of the high-production value blockbuster’s wall of
fame. What lets it down though, is its insistence on the past. Rather than wallowing
in the gold dust of its own origin story, the franchise could have taken a step
towards the daunting confines of the unknown by going somewhere there none if
the jedis or Chewbaccas had gone before. As it didn’t, it often looks like a
plastic surgery job on the first film rather than a bedazzling original which,
ironically, the first instalment unquestionably was. They’ve gone for the
literal carbon copy rather than aiming to reproduce the slight “WTF” impression on the viewers’ faces created
by the original.
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