NO SPOILERS SO SHUT THE F*** UP, RELAX AND READ ON!
If I see that warn-out car joke one more time, right next to the UK carry-on meme, I’m going to go off on the social retard.
Anyway, I had the good fortune of seeing The Force Awakens on its pre-opening night which is Thursday evenings these days. My nephew in Qatar was even luckier, he saw it Wednesday night which I’m surprised the GOP didn’t blame Obama for. To me, this means democracy has failed once again.
In all seriousness, JJ Abrams succeeded by making the movie Lucas should’ve made 16 years ago but we had to wait 32 for. As much as I dislike Abrams for what he did to a pair of Star Trek movies, I was more cautiously optimistic here. In a 2009-based interview he confessed he didn’t really know much about Trek (it showed) and was a Star Wars fan. Force lived up to the hype regarding practical effects too. There’s little to no issues of the actors missing the sight lines to digital creations or more of what I’ve recently noticed in a re-watching of the prequels…stiff, awkward hugs.
Another element Abrams impressed me with were the little humorous touches. He did excellently on making the gags subtle, memorable and well-timed…unlike Lucas’ sledgehammer, slapstick approach via the droids and Jar Jar. I really wasn’t expecting this, more like I forgot.
Will the fans enjoy this? Absolutely. There are good performances from the cast. Not clumsy, stiff lines.
Are there true surprises? You’ll have to see it and decide for yourself.
Will the non-diehards enjoy this or just roll their eyes as they often do? There are always curmudgeons amongst them who think they’re Pauline Kael but enough are going to be impressed.
The franchise appears to be in good hands despite being the property of a real-life, evil media empire.
Alamo Extras: We got there a bit late and we needed to score our Mondo glasses. If I choose to do a spoiler-filled review (unlikely) later, I can give the whole lowdown. For now it was…Foreign movies and domestic TV which have borrowed elements of Star Wars clips; a parody of This is Your Life with C-3P0; a site that re-dubbed Darth Vader’s parts with other roles James Earl Jones played; old Kenner toy commercials; a snippet from the dreadful 1978 holiday special; Alamo modified their how-to order instructions with Yoda’s voice and diction; the infamous sorority girl complaint call redone as if Darth Vader were calling; and a little prank about what they were going to show instead of The Force Awakens.