Star Wars-The Force Awakens: Returning Home In a Galaxy Far, Far Away

Hey, it's good to be back home again, as the late and remembered John Denver once said.  And, like John Denver, he's not the only 70s icon who is still remembered.  For Star Wars, which got it's start in 1977, it has the added virtue of never having left us. Forcefully bursting upon the American culture in 1977, it took up residence in our collective conscience.  Now global, though it has ebbed and flowed, it has never left.  Even through moments where the franchise seemed to have seen better days, the hunger for more adventures in that far away galaxy remain with us.  If the multiple movie money making records broken this weekend are any indication, the hunger is just as voracious.  But if it is one thing Star Wars fans are, more than hungry, it is vulnerable of heart.  The Prequel Trilogy got a decidedly mixed reaction from fans and those who hate, they hate deeply.  Disappointment aside, as well as expected wariness, many of these same fans despise the efforts and distrust the storytelling judgement of director/writer JJ Abrams.  JJ Abrams is the creator of LOST and the man who rejuvenated Star Trek. He is a fanboy for sure and master of the mystery box, the emotions of the moment and rapid fire scenes.  But some fans were concerned that his return to the Star Wars universe would be light and fluffy, full of image but bereft of logic and narrative flow.  Some of those fans point to Abram's treatment of Star Trek as evidence.  As financially lucrative as Abram's Trek films have been, some say they exemplify Abram's worst tendencies as a storyteller, to be more interested in the moment rather than the deeper narrative thread that connects them.

      However, that would not seem to be the case at all.  Star Wars The Force Awakens is a film with a sound narrative and mythic fantasy logic running through it that has run through the entire saga, that being destiny, family and the ongoing struggle between light and dark, but out on the physical world as well as deep within the soul.  Unlike Star Trek, which Abrams admits he wasn't a fan of before he became involved with the franchise, Abrams clearly connects with Star Wars on an intuitive personal level.  Though that is not a guarantor of a good story, that seems to be the case here and the critics seem to agree that Abram's stuck the landing, with the film rating 95 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.   

      The film begins thirty years after the end of Return of the Jedi.  One of the most controversial decisions Disney has made with their captaining of the Star Wars franchise was ditching the established Extended Universe (EU) trilogy, most notably its post-Jedi tales.  From Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire trilogy...

 ...forward, the fans already had a well-developed version of the SW universe going forward, with well developed post-Jedi elements, both in the personal lives of our beloved characters as well as the larger politics of the galaxy.  Zahn's books were a smashing introduction and it was those books that kept SW alive for many fans.  So when Disney did what it did, many raised loud voices of objection.  However, though Disney had logical reasons for doing this (a cumbersome quasi-official timeline they had no part in creating, the fact that many of the EU books are pretty bad), they did recognize the rich treasure trove the EU books and the elements it brought into being did offer.  So, when TFE does kick off, from the opening fanfare and crawl forward, it is clear the EU is not dead.  It is just, altered according to the muses of JJ Abrams and his co-creators.  For example, like in the EU, it is clear the defeat and deaths of Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader did not mean the end of the Empire.  In the EU, huge fleets, armies and occupied worlds still remain for the New Republic to contend with, with splinter factions of the former Galactic Empire squabbling for control.  In TFE, this is also true, with The First Order arising from the ashes of the Empire.  Another concept of the EU was that the Empire eventually started conscripting its enlisted forces, most notably stormtroopers.  Part of their training is submitting them to some kind of intense conditioning to ensure their loyalty and obedience.  One young, inexperienced trooper in his first combat engagement, finds that he does not have the stomach for gunning down helpless villagers and decides he needs to escape.  He enlists the help of a captured Resistance pilot and the two of them escape from The First Order and land on the desert world Jakku, where a young scavenger girl named Rey and a wayward droid named BB-8 await.  This is where things start, but not where they end, in an adventure that crosses light years and alien worlds, delving into family ties and the mysteries of an awakening Force.

    Thus, we are reintroduced to the Star Wars universe, an old, dear friend with a fresh face.  Believe me, it is good to be back home again.

    May the Force Be With You.