What an utter joy and cause for celebration the new Star Wars movie is. This film should inspire street parties in commemoration of the series being revived in such a wonderful way. JJ Abrams and the folks at Bad Robot should be patting themselves on the back for successfully rebooting a cult Sci-Fi franchise - twice (the first, of course, being Star Trek in 2009). With the franchise under the ownership of Disney and George Lucas out of the picture, fans can finally get the long-mooted "sequel trilogy" of Episodes VII, VII and IX.
A relatively simple story to set up this new trilogy, we find ourselves thirty-odd years after Return Of The Jedi and hearing only vague references to the prequels ("balance in the Force", the Sith, and the suggestion of cloned Stormtroopers). The Empire is dead but now a new take on an old enemy has arisen from the ashes in the form of the "First Order", commanded by the human General Hux (a fantastically maniacal Domhnall Gleeson), Kylo Ren (a deliberately-Poundland Vader played by Adam Driver) and the mysterious Supreme Leader Snoke (a motion-captured Andy Serkis). We also find a hero-to-be on the other side in the person of Stormtrooper, Finn (Attack The Block's John Boyega) who finds himself overwhelmed by the requirements of the job. But the focus of the film is Rey (Daisy Ridley), a scavenger on the desert planet that is not Tatooine and soon falls in with Finn and a lone droid named BB-8 and they find themselves joining forces with old favourites Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewie (their entrance almost invites the audience of a US sitcom to whoop and applaud). They all end up on a quest to find Luke Skywalker (and when Mark Hamill finally appears... there are no words). Meanwhile, the First Order have constructed the latest Death Star in the form of Starkiller Base, the size of a planet rather than a moon and can destroy multiple planets at once - a demonstration of its firepower is worth seeing the film on the big screen alone and may well evoke the feeling of seeing Alderaan being blown up for the first time. The First Order are to be countered by the latest incarnation the Rebel Alliance, the "Resistance", led by the now-General Leia (Carrie Fisher).
Yes, there is very familiar territory being revisited and perhaps there could have been less use of CGI (particularly a man-eating monster). The work done on Snoke is creaky but in an acceptably cheapy Sci-Fi/fantasy way like Azog in The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies (2014). But the film is both fun and laugh-out-loud funny (we're a long way from Jar Jar Binks shouting "Ex-squeeze me!"). How fun it is to see our new leads fun aboard the abandoned Millennium Falcon (curiously unchanged in the duration of its various changes of owners). Abrams and co have made a pretty-much note perfect tribute to the Star Wars films of old, whether it's using '70s graphics in the Falcon's gunner targeting system, or the performances of the First Order's fascist Imperial-esque officers (a nice little touch harking back to The Empire Strikes Back has a nervous young officer remove his hat before reporting a failure to Kylo Ren).
But at the centre of the film is Rey, in whom the Force appears to be awakening. After two generations of whiny Skywalkers and women of royalty being used to sell dolls or fulfill Lucas' onanistic fantasies, we finally get a female leading the story and at no point is exploited for eye candy (one gag has Finn asking her if she has a boyfriend but that's about it) and gets to be rather badass too. Both her and Ridley have quickly become a symbol that there is indeed a "new hope" for the series.
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