Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Cast : Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac
Rated: 7/10
From 1977 to 2015 is a big leap for humanity, as it is for humanity’s long standing obsession with the George Lucas series Star Wars. Not to disappoint, the latest episode in this spatial journey atop a battle between good and evil can safely be tagged as sustainable development.
For the SW buffs, this journey is remarkable, and the fact that in every “episode” a lot of money has been made and a lot of appreciation heaped is a story in itself. And, this one is no exception.
Of course, the basics are all the same — an outer space journey, multiple planets away from Earth, a bad force trying to crush the universe and all beings within it, a stiff Resistance force fighting against this wanton subjugation bid, most actors new, some old, a lot more gizmos, a trendy lingo which has grown with changing times and a heady mix of a story with past intoned in it and an unfolding present that’s worth fighting for.
The good thing director JJ Abram’s done this time round?
Well, for one, he has kept the link from 1977 to 2015 — despite a gap of almost four decades, a couple of years short. That in itself is quite an achievement and the director has done well to expand the technology and marry it with old world charm of issues, figures and landscapes.
Out here, there’s this sandy dune planet of Jakku, where the scavengers live and toll for junk, from where Rey, the girl with hidden powers, emanates and takes the reins of this film. Then there’s is this entire empire of dark forces built and managed by evil master Snoke who has Kylo Ren in his spell of everything bad. Now, Ren happens to be the errant son of Han Solo (Harrison Ford, he’s been there since 1977 and seen it all). Ren sworn himself to Snoke, pledging to kill his father and everything good in a bid to prove his allegiance.
But this dazzling film is basically premised on the hunt of Luke Skywalker who has disappeared from the face of the planet and for whom all the forces are in search of. There’s a R2D2 rolly-polly robo, a hidden map, a fight and a hunt — and all this put together makes for an engaging view of this iconic series which seems to have made more money than any other of the spatials you may have seen thus far.
P.S. Harrison Ford is vintage and for those who saw him in the 1977 episode, this 2015 episode after 48 years is quite the redeemer. Also, Skywalker doesn’t make an appearance at all in the film, except in the closing shot, that too without a single dialogue. Yet, his presence is daunting.
For Star Wars chelas, this one is to go for. For others, a little reading up may be required for some wholesome entertainment. 
Source: The Sunday Pioneer, 27 December, 2015

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nil Battey Sannata: Endearing, real and simple

Cast :  Swara Bhaskar, Ratna Pathak Shah, Pankaj Tripathi Rated :  8/10 Nil Battey Sannata is a confusing title but an endearing, simple, gentle and real film. Besides, the title confuses only till Swara Bhaskar as Chanda explains it to you with endearing simplicity much ahead in the movie. It literally means zero understanding and zero marks — in her and her daughter’s case, in Mathematics. But this one is not just about the mind-boggling numbers that have become the bane of students and parents alike. It is about the maths, algebra and geometry of life itself — an equation that director Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari puts on the blackboard in an engaging, simplified format. Nil Battey Sannata  is a film sitting on a very real firmament, a very you-and-me story about the in-your-face problems that everyone encounters. In here, it is about misrani  (cook) Chanda and her full of life but anti-studies daughter Apeksha Sahay’s daily churn. Thankfully, it is not the drudg...
Read more

Criminal: Arresting memory transplant

Cast : Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, Tommy Lee Jones, Ryan Reynolds, Jordi Mollà Rated : 6/10 Big names, big imagination and good execution make this memory transplant thriller a good one to be with, especially with Kevin Costner doing a pretty good job with a character he has never played – that of an emotionless, incarcerated, brutal killer in whose brain a do-good, wife and daughter loving dead CIA’s agent’s (Ryan Reynolds) remembrances are inserted for a trail that is important for the organisation. The underdone role has been handled well by Costner, much like a successful experiment. As he gets acquainted with emotions of love, caring and affection that have been alien to him, he starts turning from a monster to a human being but the director does well to not completely erase his original personality. So, there is a mix and match, there is brutal violence as also gentle gestures, like battering a man to death in a car hijack and saving a hair brush for the little one. The f...
Read more

Mission impossible: Rogue nation -- Ethan Hunt back with bang

Staring:  Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin, Sean Harris, Jeremy Reyner & Rebecca Ferguson Rated : 8/10 Last time Ethan Hunt had your jaw dropping and you praying fervently for his life when mounted the sky scraping Burj Khalifa in Dubai to dangle from dizzying heights. This time, he does the same — and in all earnestness — when he dangles from the outer door of a military aircraft carrying nerve gas all those 20,000 feet high swaying with terrifying winds, hanging on to dear life literally with his finger nails. This is the fifth time since 1996 that Tom Cruise, as the inscrutable Ethan Hunt, has kept his promise of entertaining his loyal viewers with thrills, fills, kills and a little bit of unsaid romance — of course with a fellow agent. Rogue Nation was initially being touted as the last of the Mission Impossible series but seeing the youthfulness of Hunt, and probably the meticulously ‘kept-high’ entertainment value that this James-Bond lookalike series always delivers, C...
Read more