Those six magical words that made Star Wars an existential exploration of the galaxy, ‘May the force be with you’, was uttered only once during the new breathtakingly awaited segment of the Star Wars franchise.
And if the truth be told, Harrison Ford, looking wisened but agile and alert, didn’t seem very convinced about the words any more. Maybe the Force needs a little more impetus than what the brains behind the franchise came up with.
Let’s not bullshit ourselves into believing the ‘Force’ can prevail on all that is undesirable in our cosmos and magically, if not scientifically, alchemise our thought processes and their imaginative powers into visiting places in the universe where no Man has gone before. Except maybe Dr Spock. But that’s another story.
38 years is a long time for a franchise to flourish. When the first Star Wars film came out we were young and excitable movie buffs dazzled by the exceptional spectacle that the pilgrimage across that the galaxy offered by George Lucas creatively excitable team. Six films later I find new generations of Star Wars enthusiasts persuading themselves into believing that the ‘Force’ is still with us, and never mind if all the beloved characters from the Star Wars series have seen better days.
Indeed one of the residual joys of this bitterly disappointing franchise-teaser is to see how gracefully the characters have evolved and how effectively the actors have aged with the characters. More than half-way through the journey when Carrie Fisher , no more the petite virginal Princess Leia, shows up a nostalgic gasp rises within us and is hurriedly suppressed.
Lamentably such moments of ruminative recognition in a series that defies the time zone, are far too infrequent. A large part of Star Wars: The Force Awakens plays out like the fine-print playing instructions of an intricate video game designed to keep precocious 10-year-old engaged while his parents watch The Revenant.
The plot is thick with interstellar intrigue and in-house jibes, the latter bordering on an incestuous secret bond between the franchise and its fanatical followers.Cleverly disguised bumper-sticker wisdom on Good and Evil , and also a startling reference to patricide,this film strips the franchise of all its spectacle and allure and replaces them with a fatigued existentialism.
The old beloved characters from the series make weary appearances at various stages of the spluttering disembodied narrative to remind us that the cracks and fissures of Time are as illusory as attempts to piece them all together in linear time-bound cinematic range of vision. Though plot-driven and filled with dramatic conflicts often between unsuspecting characters(can’t give away those twilight-zone twists and turns as spoilers generate stinkers from the Star Wars devotees) the drama is driven by didacticism and denuded of dynamism.
A lot of this segment on the epic galactic escape is shot on studio-constructed sets representing the insides of space ships .The effect is claustrophobic. And distracting. We never flow with the battle between the evil First Order and the restorative Resistance. Too glum to be glorious the narrative chokes the breath out of the fun aspect inherent in the series.
Rather than generate the drama from an intrinsic and intimate relationship between the characters and their environment the plot jumps into the conflicts from the outside , creating an insurmountable breach between the audience and the universe of the imagination that director JJ Abrams so proprietorially purports to occupy.
But the opulent occupancy is besieged by bouts of tiredness. Quite often we end up looking at the characters not for what they seem to be doing to save our galaxy from catastrophe but for what they should be doing to save this segment of an iconic franchise from falling apart.
Of course no one is going to pay attention to the warning. But do yourself a favour this Christmas season. Go back to the beginning of the franchise when the galactic conflicts were far less self consciously complex and far easier to ingest. Now, even the younger actors like Daisy Ridley and John Boyega who have joined in the…errr, fun scarcely spare a smile for the camera.
It’s all too dark claustrophobic and glum. Yes, the Force awakens. Whether that’s reason to get excited or not depends entirely on how frantically devoted you are to the franchise. This segment is all about voyages down the cosmos searching for Good in the Bad, more specifically for Luke Skywalker.
Is he found by the script?
I can only provide ‘Luke’warm response to that one.