Ahsoka By E.K. Johnston - Young Adult Star Wars Novel But Should Appeal To Any Fan

Ahsoka by E.K. Johnston

One of my favorite characters in the Star Wars universe is Ahsoka Tano, a young Togruta woman who was assigned to be  Anakin Skywalker’s Padawan learner. Most of her adventures are presented in the Clone Wars animated series. During the last four episodes of the fifth season of that series, Ahsoka is falsely accused of murdering a key suspect in a bombing at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant that resulted in the death of five Jedi and several others. Even though Anakin knew that Ahsoka was innocent, She was nonetheless banned from the Jedi Order and handed over to the Republic for trial. She manages to escape fled to try to prove her innocence, which only served to deepen the suspicion against her. Eventually, Ahsoka is exonerated of guilt, but the experience has left her disillusioned and she makes the decision to leave the Jedi Order. After this, there is very little known about what she has been about until she shows up in the Rebels animated series as an agent for Bail Organa’s Rebel Alliance.

Ahsoka is a novel that bridges some of the gap in Ahsoka’s story following her departure from the Jedi Order leading up to her meeting Bail Organa and becoming the manager of his intelligence network for the Rebels. The novel was first released on October 11, 2016, published by Disney-Lucasfilm Press and considered to be canon in the Star Wars universe. The events of this story begin one year after the establishment of the Galactic Empire, Anakin becoming Darth Vader, and the downfall of the Jedi Order.

While hiding out on the planet Thabeska, Ahsoka wants to stay out of the limelight and avoid being discovered by the Empire. When Imperial soldiers arrive on the planet, Ahsoka, under the name ‘Ashla,’ decides it is time to move on because one of the missions of the Empire is to hunt down and kill any Jedi that may have escaped Order 66. She finds an Outer Rim moon called Raada where there is no Imperial presence and, as Ashla, establishers herself as a mechanic repairing farming droids for the local workers. Preferring to be reclusive, she reluctantly establishes relationships while on Raada, all the while pondering the past and wondering about the fate of her former friends including Anakin.

As time passes, she becomes the village mechanic and a part of the community. Eventually, the empire shows up to exploit the moon’s agricultural value by more or less enslaving the inhabitants and forcing them to plant crops that grow quickly with high yields. The Empire’s crops also have the tendency to deplete all of the nutrients in the soil, making the farmland useless. Ahsoka is appalled at the injustice of the situation and she builds and leads a resistance movement on Raada. Her activities cause a bureaucrat to suspect that there is a Jedi presence on the moon and Ahsoka is forced to escape once again, but promises to return.

Ahsoka returns to Thabeska where she works for a while as a smuggler. When she is discovered as a Jedi there, she once again has to flee and learns that an Inquisitor is on Raada. She meets Bail Organa and learns that Raada is more or less uninhabitable because of the Imperial activity there and that the population has to be rescued. She returns there to face down the Inquisitor. She is able to kill him and uses the kyber crystals from his weapon to make herself a new set of lightsabers. With the help of Bail Organa, Raada is evacuated and Ahsoka is convinced to join the growing rebel movement against the Empire.

Ahsoka is a young adult novel because of the main theme, but any Star Wars fan would enjoy it, especially if the reader is familiar with Clone Wars. In the television series, the character quickly becomes endearing as she has some interesting witty exchanges with her master, Anakin. He almost immediately gives her the nickname “Snips” because of her snippy comebacks. So she has a fast wit, but she also can think well on her feet. One of her main influences in learning how to command troops comes from Captain Rex, a clone trooper that has seen many battles. He helps to shape the woman that Ahsoka will eventually become.

In the novel, Ahsoka is completely on her own. She has no clue of the fate of her friends. She doesn’t know that her friend and master, Anakin has become Darth Vader, or that Padme birthed twins before she died, that Obi-Wan is on Tatooine watching Luke grow, or that Yoda has exiled himself in seclusion on Dagobah. But she has learned her lessons well and is able to lead a small scale, but effective resistance movement on Raada.

When she leaves her home with the Jedi Order, she has no direction. She is also very confused and disillusioned because she wasn’t believed and, she believes, forced to go on the run to prove her innocence of murder. So, under an assumed name, she moves around from place to place trying to make sense of everything and find her place in the big picture. Fortunately for her, Ahsoka has her Jedi training to help her through the process of sorting out her life.

There are some other characters in the story that are also well fleshed out and become important to the main character, and thus the reader. I also enjoyed the descriptions of the places that Ahsoka encountered during her travels.  I can see why this story should appeal to young people in particular as it addresses problems that are common to them today. But as I did, I think that any Star Wars fan would enjoy this story.

Well, there it is…

Qapla’!

Edited by Benjamin Arrowood

Star Wars: The Last Jedi - Just Some Thoughts On The Movie And Fandom

Star Wars: The Last Jedi - My Thoughts on some aspects of the film.

At the outset, I am going to say that I enjoyed this film very much, and there will be spoilers here, so read on at your own peril.

As the film opens, we find that the Resistance (previously known as the Rebel Alliance) is rapidly being wiped out by the First Order (previously known as the Galactic Empire). In the previous film, The Force Awakens, Rey found Luke Skywalker on the planet Ahch-To where he is living in self-imposed exile. She is asking him to return to help with the fight and to train her in the ways of the Force as a Jedi. This is the setting for the much anticipated eighth part of the saga.

This post is not so much a review, it is more of a gathering of my thoughts, both positive and negative. I have read posts that have presented both sides of the argument for and against this film and I figured that I might as well weigh in too. So take it for what it is worth and try to remember, it is, after all, just a movie.

At the end of The Force Awakens, there were a couple of questions that I had on my mind. After giving it some thought, I had two theories about the characters Rey and Snoke. First I thought that it would turn out that Rey was the daughter of Luke Skywalker. I thought that some of the evidence that pointed to this included how she, while trapped on Jakku, had a Rebel Alliance pilot helmet and a doll dressed in an X-Wing pilot’s flight suit. I also thought that Snoke, the Supreme Leader of the First Order was the resurrected Darth Vader, either in spirit, or in person. The reason for this was mainly for the scars that seemed to be in common with Anakin’s scars from Return of the Jedi. Well, both of my theories were wholly inaccurate as Rey turns out to be nothing more than an abandoned child left behind by uncaring parents (that is also dependent on whether we can believe what Rey was told by Kylo Ren).  Snoke has no real background revealed in the film and remains a mysterious figure who arose to power because of his command of the dark side of the Force. I am thinking that in the new novels currently being published, and also being touted as the new canon for the expanded universe, we are going to get the backstory on these two and many other characters as time goes on. I am not, in the least, upset that my theories were wrong.

I was somewhat upset by Luke Skywalker after my first viewing of the film. However, after the second viewing, I had a better understanding of the situation. In the original trilogy, Luke was the most optimistic, hopeful character one could ask for. All he wanted out of life was to be a part of something that was bigger than him. Thanks to Obi-Wan, instead of going to the Empire Academy, he wound up becoming a member of the Rebel Alliance and accomplished a great many things resulting finally in the downfall of Emperor Palpatine and the redemption of Anakin Skywalker. Luke’s character in Last Jedi is a complete opposite of who he once was. He is a bitter old hermit who seems to be full of regret and anger. It was sad to see how he had almost become the anti-hero. On the other hand, I can see how he might have gone down the path of bitterness when looking at his failures. Luke was strong with the Force, although he didn’t know it, but because of his lineage, Obi-Wan knew it and made him his padawan learner. While Obi-Wan did give him some training, it turned out to be more of making Luke aware that he had abilities rather than any hard training. When Luke sought training from Yoda, it also was cut short because Luke felt obligated to save his associates at Bespin. Now, as we know, Jedi training is a lifelong study not only in the art of fighting, but in academics and philosophy as well. As a result, Luke took a quick path in his training, missing much of the philosophy of the Jedi. All of this was not Luke’s fault, but rather because of the desperate situation facing the Alliance to end the tyranny of Palpatine and restore liberty to the galaxy. With this in mind, Luke decides he will bring back the Jedi by training a new generation of students, and it leads to his biggest failure and the reason for his self-imposed exile. He is given his nephew, Ben Solo, to train in the ways of the Jedi. Son of Han and Leia, Ben is a descendant of Anakin Skywalker, who himself was seduced by the dark side. There was always a danger that Luke himself would fall to the dark side if he gave into his inner hatred of the Empire and the anger he was given to. It would seem that Ben Solo, was even more possessed by hatred and anger which caused Luke to even consider killing the son of his best friend and his sister. So, it would seem that Luke feels that he would do far more harm than good and decides to sequester himself and stay out of the picture altogether. He has become a conflicted and sad shadow of his former self. I first felt that he had become a coward, hiding away on a remote world only to let his sister lead the fight for freedom. Later I came to understand that he is not cowardly, but has convinced himself that any further involvement would only lead to disaster. He believes this so deeply that, whether we agree or not, it is the reality.

Luke is considered to be the last, best hope for the survival of the Resistance. While Luke himself doesn’t agree, he finally redeems himself in the end by providing a smokescreen for the ragtag remnants of the Resistance to escape and maybe fight another day. His self-imposed exile had made him into somewhat of a legend, but, in the end he is nothing but a man who has to reconcile his accomplishments against his failures as he fades out of existence. Luke’s passing is also a passing of the torch to the new generation of Star Wars fans. It will be interesting to see how this future unfolds. The old is now over as it has overlapped with what is new and the franchise will move forward with new heroes and ideas. One of those new ideas is the First Order under the leadership of Kylo Ren.

Speaking of Kylo Ren, here is one sad and messed up man. He is one of the most powerful villains in the Star Wars franchise but that isn’t enough for him. He wants to emulate his grandfather, Darth Vader. In Force Awakens, he runs his father, Han Solo through with a lightsaber and, while he hesitates himself, seems perfectly content with having his mother’s command ship attacked by TIE Fighters putting her at risk. At the same time, Ren is in telepathic contact with Rey and he tries diligently and unsuccessfully to talk her into joining him on the dark side. At the same time, Ren seems to be more influenced by Rey than anything. Ren is a very conflicted character who has started down a dark path, and there would seem to be no turning back.

Kylo Ren, or as I have come to refer to him as “Emo” Ren (yes, I understand that the term Emo refers to a sub-genre of Punk Rock music and has been misused for a long time, I am using the vernacular as it is commonly defined by today’s teens and young adults). Here is a man, all dressed in black with a very dark personality to match, all in the name of trying to impress his Supreme Leader, but never quite hitting the mark. Ren seems caught in the middle between being evil and good, and could fall either way given the right circumstances. That is, until he steps up and kills Snoke! I didn’t think Ren had it in him, but he makes himself the Supreme Leader, a role that seemed destined to be given to General Hux. Instead, leadership falls on Ren, who is given to fits of rage and episodes of melancholy. What kind of leader will he be? It is hard to say, but judging from how he was portrayed in Last Jedi, I am thinking that he will not be a great one. His conflicted, almost bi-polar instability may be of great detriment to the First Order, and there is always the question of whether Rey can turn him away from the Dark Side.

Rey herself is an interesting character to me for numerous reasons. One of those is that I can identify with her personally when thinking back to a scene from Force Awakens. As Rey went about her business on Jakku, collecting old parts and selling them for her subsistence, there is a scene in which she looks across a cleaning vat and sees an old woman cleaning parts to sell. I can imagine that she was terrified that one day, she would find herself in the same position. At that moment, she realizes that she must find a way to better herself and become someone who could make a difference. I, myself had the same realization when I was working at a gas station with a man who was 70 years old and had no hope of retiring from a nothing job. That is the moment when I decided to go to college and get a degree, but that’s a story for another time. In the case of Rey, while she wanted to be a part of something bigger than herself, she was also reluctant to leave Jakku because she was holding vigil for her parents. Well, Rey found herself thrust into a position that allowed her to test her mettle, and so far she has been well up to the task. During her young life, she has learned to be strong and independent and that has taken her quite far. When you add her apparent natural ability to channel the Force, she would seem to be unstoppable. She is very sure of herself and quite admirable and I look forward to her future development in the franchise.

As I said at the beginning of this article, I love this film, however it is not without its flaws and disappointments. As far as I am concerned, the biggest disappointment was the humor as it appeared in Last Jedi. Every film in the franchise contains humor that adds much to the story and provides a little comic relief to the intense moments. Up until now, the humor has always been more subtle and part of a character’s personality. Last Jedi is different because the humor seemed more forced and over pronounced. It was as though the script and the director were reaching for the laughs. This is an unforgivable flaw that I had to work hard to overlook lest the film would have been ruined for me (I felt this once before when I saw The Phantom Menace). The entire scene with Poe Dameron taunting General Hux is a prime example of this kind of humor. While it might seem hilarious on the surface, that particular scene took a very strong character and made him look like a buffoon. Remember that speech given by Hux in Force Awakens? The one just before the First Order fired the planet killing weapon at Coruscant that wiped out all traces of the Imperial government. That speech sent chills down my spine and served to make me see Hux as a formidable individual. What happened in Last Jedi made Hux look like an idiot as Poe talked trash to him and Hux bought into it. It is very sad to see a character like Hux get nerfed so badly that he may never recover.

And while I am thinking of characters that were badly nerfed, what of Poe? Here’s a character that appeared in Force Awakens as an amazing pilot and trusted high ranking officer as well as a confidant to General Skywalker herself. In Last Jedi, he appears to be an insubordinate maverick who believes he can just disobey orders whenever it suits him. But he doesn’t just stop at insubordination, he goes to the level of treason when he openly defies the commander who takes over when Leah is incapacitated! In doing that, Poe seemed to be more of a threat to his own people than the First Order ever did. His actions would only serve to kill what little morale was left in the Resistance movement where he should have been leading by example, even if he did disagree with the lawful command of Leah’s replacement, Vice Admiral Holdo. If this is the Poe we are going to get in future installments of Star Wars films, my vote is to drum him out of the service and maroon him on an out of the way planet.

While any movie will have plot holes and inconsistencies, one was pointed out to me by a friend whom I respect and admire. She said that “it ruined her entire childhood,” but I took this very much as a tongue-in-cheek remark because I know she is not that superficial. It was a slow night at the writers meeting I was attending when my turn came up to read what I had written. I read the first page or so of this post. A discussion broke out about the film and my friend said that she thought it strange that when Luke disappeared, his mechanical hand also disappeared. She thought this unusual since it was not a part of him. As I thought about this I found that I was in agreement with her. Why would his robe stay behind while his prosthetic went with him into wherever Yoda went when he moved on leaving his cane and robe behind? And when Obi-Wan was dispatched by Vader, his robe and lightsaber were likewise left behind. After Luke defeated Vader and dragged him to the shuttle in Return of the Jedi, we knew that a lot of what was left of Vader was “more machine than man” as Obi-Wan informed Luke. We all saw what happened to Anakin in Revenge of the Sith when Obi-Wan severed Anakin’s legs, and he was badly burned on Mustafar, not to mention that Luke had also severed Vader’s hand in Return of the Jedi. Yet, when Anakin appeared with Yoda and Obi-Wan before the closing credits of Episode VI, he was whole again and restored. Now to me, this is a very small plot hole, or perhaps an oversight, but nonetheless, it is something to be considered.

In any case, there is no shortage of fandom opinion, mostly negative, and much of it is vulgar. Hatred for Last Jedi can be found everywhere, and even more for Disney and for the president of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy. I am not going to point out where it can be found on the internet as it is everywhere. On the movie review site Rotten Tomatoes, the current numbers are, to me at least, very weird. Right now, as I am writing this, the critics give Last Jedi a 91% approval rating while at the same time, only 49% of audience respondents liked the film. Wikipedia reports that the film has grossed over $1.3 billion worldwide, so someone must be liking it. Those who don’t are saying that they are through with Star Wars altogether and will not be returning for further installments claiming that Disney has effectively killed the franchise. One such person is a friend of mine that was so incensed by the movie that he posted nearly every day for two weeks about all of the things he hated and the reasons he would no longer be a fan. That’s a lot of hurt.

Personally, I do not understand why fandom feels the need to not only hate something that they do not have control over, and then try to convince others to go along with their point of view, as if they need to be validated for their feelings. If you are one of those that didn’t like Last Jedi, I am quite okay with that. Go ahead and hate all you want, rant all you want, and threaten to never again watch another Star Wars movie. It’s all good; no one dragged you to the theater to see it, and no one will drag you there to see the next one, but I will go on record now saying that I am sure you will actually be in the audience for whatever comes next. You’ll pay your admission, grab a popcorn and soda, and go in with the expectation that you are going to hate what you are about to see. You’ll do this because you need something to gripe about. Even if it is a perfect film, you’re still going to find something that rubbed you the wrong way, and you’re going to blow it way out of proportion. Further, you’re going to go on Facebook and try to convince others that you are right, and you may even find a few others that agree with you. And when you fail to convince everyone that you are right, you’re going to call them names and ridicule them because they didn’t see the same flaws you did, and you’ll troll others trying to pick your little fights with them. All of this because perhaps you have nothing else to look forward to in your life than nitpicking an entertainment.

I have said before, fandom is insane.

But I don’t care, I loved The Last Jedi, and I know that I will enjoy whatever is next. See, it is all a matter of perspective. Love it or hate it, but at the end of the day, it’s just a movie. At any rate, what we have seen is a resetting of the saga. The torch (or lightsaber) has been passed to a new generation and I am excited to see what is coming next.

Well, there it is…

May the Force be with you…

Qapla’!

Edited by Benjamin Arrowood

Star Wars: Rogue One: A New Can Of Worms

Star Wars: Rogue One: A New Can Of Worms

On the outset, I will say that I love this movie and have seen it twice. I enjoyed it more the second time around because I was familiar with the new characters. It is an epic story about how the plans for the first Death Star fell into the hands of the Rebel Alliance and who was responsible for the vulnerabilities that allowed it to be destroyed in the original Star Wars film. If there is one shortfall that I wonder about is, where are the “many Bothans” that died as mentioned by Mon Mothma? But that is something for another time.

What I am thinking about today, and have been for the past couple of weeks is the CGI characters that appeared in the film, particularly Grand Moff Tarkin.

As the story unfolded on the screen, when I saw Peter Cushing’s image, I thought to myself that it was really cool that they brought his character back to life as an important part of the story. Then when I saw the other actors in their Rebel ships, I again was amazed at what the studio was able to do. Then, once again, at the end of the film, that last shot of Princess Leia accepting the plans that she would later entrust to R2-D2, I was both elated and saddened at the same time seeing Carrie Fischer’s character so respectfully there as the story, once again, comes full circle.

As far as Tarkin and Leia are concerned, the CGI was extremely well done, but also obviously it they were not the real characters because of a few very minor imperfections, of which I will not go into detail due to the insignificance of them. Suffice it to say that they were so close that I felt it more of a tribute and a necessary part of the story. I am not one to get all bent out of shape over minutiae and have no problem suspending my disbelief in favor of enjoying a film.

However, after thinking about what I witnessed on the screen, especially as I thought about Tarkin, I couldn’t help but wonder what implications this new and developing technology might have on future films. A link to an article came across my Facebook feed questioning the ethics of this practice. That is exactly what I wondered about too as the question of resurrecting departed actors crossed my mind. As I understand, Cushing’s family gave their permission, and may have even been compensated for the appearance, and kudos to the filmmakers for following through with should be considered the right thing to do. And one might also think about Tarkin’s image appearing in the animated series, Star Wars: Clone Wars and again in Star Wars: Rebels, while in those instances, it was an animated image that approximated the original actor, while in Rogue One, it was far more of an attempt to absolutely recreate the character as accurately as possible.

In the very limited reading I done on this subject, people’s feelings fall on both sides of the fence. It’s right or it isn’t right depending on how one feels. Many believe that it is okay in this case because permission was obtained and compensation was paid while others say it doesn’t matter and that the role should have been re-cast using a live actor. Perhaps either or both are right, I’m not sure myself, but I do have a few thoughts.

As I mentioned before, I think it was great that the actors who were in Star Wars were brought back. It gave Rogue One a comfortable sense of continuity for me, and was as much a tribute as anything else. While the technology as it exists today is prohibitively expensive that it probably cannot be afforded by any but the largest studios, we all know that as time goes on, more and more filmmakers will have access to this developing tool, and as such, a tool can be used for good, or can be perverted into something that could do great harm.

In Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country, the President of the Federation made a statement that I think might be something that could give one food for thought, “Let us redefine progress to mean that just because we can do a thing, it does not necessarily mean we must do that thing.”

So far, the use of CGI in films has been all over the spectrum from being used well, to completely dominating a film to the point that it overshadows the story and characters that it actually becomes the star of a film rather than something to help tell a story. With the current idea that a beloved, departed actor can be recreated and become a main character in a film has its implications too. As in the case of Rogue One, it can be beneficial, but what if a more unscrupulous filmmaker decides to use this as a way to take a limited budget and maximize his profits? In the not so distant future, it is conceivable that one could sit at a computer and make an entire film and not lay out a dime for talent. In this age of sequels, prequels, and remakes, this budding technology could open a can of worms should not be opened, in my humble opinion.

Let’s take a film like Logan’s Run as a possible candidate for a remake (actually, there has been talk about a remake for quite some time). Members of the cast, Michael York is in his 70’s, Jenny Agutter is in her 60’s. Richard Jordan, Farrah Fawcett, Peter Ustinov and Roscoe Lee Brown are no longer with us (in the case of the last, we never actually saw the actor, only his voice talents were lent to the robot character called Box). If one watches the film, one can see a huge number of flaws that would not stand up to modern film-going audiences. The sets are hokey, the effects are primitive, and the miniatures for large scope scenes are obviously models. Now I would have to think that that film was made using the best technology available at the time, it still looks a little off, but therein lies the charm of that film! As far as film-making history is concerned, it is perfect in everything that it is and need not be remade. Where the film does excel is in the performances of the talent involved in telling a story warning us about how we could lose control of our lives because the things that humanity values causes us to seek a more recreation based lifestyle, at least until one reaches the age of 30. So, if through the magic of CGI, we bring back the deceased actors, de-age the living ones (presuming they would allow it), and made the backgrounds slick and new, would you want to see it?  I know I wouldn’t and I know several other fans of Logan’s Run who wouldn’t as well. As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t want to see any remake of this Sci-Fi classic. As far as I am concerned, it is perfect just the way it was made originally, but that’s a rant for another time.

I cannot say what what I think is right, bit it is right for me. Some may agree while others, I am sure will disagree. I would love to hear your thoughts also.

Well, there it is…

Qaplah’!

Star Wars: The Force Awakens - An Incredible Entertaining Experience!

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

SYNOPSIS

It has been thirty years since the events depicted in Return of the Jedi and everyone is looking for Luke Skywalker, some wishing him good and in need of his help, and others wanting him, the last of the Jedi, dead. With the death of Darth Vader, a new faction has arisen calling itself the First Order, a despotic fascist who are determined to wipe out any remnants of the Republic and rule the galaxy under the auspices of Supreme Leader Snoke and his aide, Kylo Ren.

The action opens on the planet Jakku with resistance pilot Poe Dameron meeting with a village elder to receive a memory device containing information that may help lead to the whereabouts of Luke, who has gone into seclusion at an unspecified location. Poe gives the information to his droid, BB-8, for safekeeping. Before Poe is able to lift off from Jakku, Kylo Ren and soldiers of the First Order arrive, disable his X-Wing and capture Poe while BB-8 manages to get away. Ren tortures and questions Poe and learns about BB-8. When Ren figures he has all of the information he needs, he orders the villagers killed. All of the troopers, save one, follow their orders, but FN-2187 doesn’t comply with Ren’s order. Later, onboard Ren’s Star Destroyer, FN-2187 frees Poe and together they steal a Tie Fighter and they manage to crash land on Rakku. FN-2187 (renamed ‘Finn” by Poe) awakens from being unconscious, and unable to locate Poe, presumes him dead and heads out on his own.

The scene shifts to a young woman named Rey, who is subsisting by scavenging scrapped ships and other equipment to sell for rations. BB-8 finds her and they begin to work together. When someone tries to steal BB-8 from her, a fight ensues and Finn arrives on the scene and starts to try to rescue her, but he soon sees that she is more than able to take care of herself. BB-8 recognizes the jacket that Finn is wearing as belonging to Poe and Rey chases him. Finn explains that he is a part of the resistance and wants to help her. Meanwhile, the First Order finds BB-8 and attacks. Rey and Finn find an old junker of a ship (the Mellinium Falcon) and they manage to escape. While in space a tractor beam locks onto them and pulls them into a smuggler’s ship, and that smuggler is non other than Han Solo accompanied by Chewbacca.

After escaping from some of Han’s unsatisfied customers, Han, Chewie, Rey, and Finn head to Takodana and meet with Han’s friend, Maz Kanata, who can help then get BB-8 and the information the droid is carrying to General Leia Organa, now the leader of the Resistance. Rey finds a vault that contains Luke’s lightsaber, but Rey refuses to take it, so Maz gives it to Finn for safe keeping.

On a planet that has been converted into a giant version of the Death Star that is capable of destroying entire solar systems, Snoke orders that that the Republic be finished once and for all and the weapon is fired after a stirring speech by General Hux, the leader of the First Order army. In a meeting with Ren, Snoke tells him that he is confused and needs to purge himself of any calling from the light side of the Force, and to that, Ren must kill his father, Han Solo.

The First Order then attacks Takodana still looking for the map BB-8 is carrying. Han, Chewie, and Finn are saved by a squadron of resistance fighters led by Poe, however Rey is captured and questioned by Ren. Somehow she manages to resist Ren when he attempts to probe her mind and then Rey discovers that she can use the force to escape by using the old Jedi mind trick to convince a guard to release her.

Han, Chewie and Finn arrive with BB-8 at the Resistance base on D’Qar and meet up with General Leia. It is soon discovered that the map BB-8 is carrying is incomplete and there is some speculation that perhaps R2-D2 may have the rest of the map in its memory, however, the little droid has been in low power mode ever since Luke disappeared.

As the Starkiller Base prepares to attack D’Qar, a plan is hatched to send Han, Chewie, and Finn to lower the shields on the First Order weapon so Poe and his squadron can destroy the weapon. The three do enter the base and set charges, but before escaping Han encounters Ren, calling him by his real first name, Ben, appeals to him to give up serving the Dark Side. Just when it looks like Han’s appeal appears to be working, Ren runs him through with his lightsaber. Enraged, Chewie shoots Ren in the leg and sets off the explosives. Poe’s fighters destroy the weapon setting off a chain reaction that will destroy the planet.

Ren pursues Finn and Rey to the surface of the planet where Finn uses the lightsaber to fight with Ren, but Finn is not up to the task of fighting someone who is in command of the force and is badly wounded. Rey then takes up the lightsaber and carries on the fight, but the battle ends with Rey and Finn on the opposite sides of a wide fissure that opens as the planet begins to break apart. Snoke orders Hux to find Ren and evacuate the planet while Chewie, piloting the Falcon and rescues Rey and Finn and returns them to D’Qar.

While celebrating their victory on D’Qar, R2-D2 reactivates and displays a star map with a missing piece, and then BB-8 when BB-8 adds the fragment it is carrying, the map is complete and Rey, Chewie, and R2-D2 travel to a distant planet. Rey finds Luke and offers him the lightsaber.

STORY

There is nothing new in the story, it is pretty much the same trope as the 1977 film Star Wars: A New Hope. A young person who is living on a desert planet finds themselves involved in a rebellion against a regime that is oppressive begins to learn about the force and how it can be used for good. A resistance movement that is being threatened destroys a giant weapon that has been built to wipe out democracy. The young person from the desert planet searches for something, but is not sure what they will find. A beloved character is killed by an evil villain and escapes to fight another day.

It is an age old formula that works, and it works very well in this film. It doesn’t matter if the skeleton of the story is the same as in the past, it was done so well that it did seem fresh and new. Yes it was somewhat predictable, but the way the story was told, with the mixing of old and new characters, made it great. I have seen Force Awakens twice, and both times the time went by very quickly because the action begins and never slows down until the very end. I really loved all of the nods and references to the first films, for instance, the holographic game on the Falcon was priceless, and when Han and Chewie entered the Falcon, a brief encounter with Rey talking about the Kessel Run in 14 parsecs, and han correcting her that it was only 12 was equally amusing. Then there was the point at which Han says he has a “bad feeling” about a situation made me laugh out loud. The writers and director certainly did their homework.

CHARACTERS

What a treat it was to see Han, Chewie, Leia, and the droids again. It was like having old friends I haven’t seen for a long time come around for a visit. They were also perfectly written and played. They were all themselves, a bit older maybe, but none the less, a welcome sight back on the big screen in the roles they immortalized so many years ago. The nostalgia seeing them did bring a tear to my eye as I remembered taking my little brother (who isn’t so little any more) to see New Hope all those years ago.

The new characters were great as far as I am concerned. Rey is indeed a very heroic figure. Growing up on a planet where she was forced to live strictly by her wits and scrounging out a living collecting just to trade for food makes her a tough appealing female lead. However she also has a caring side that is concerned with justice and making things right. I look forward to watching her character develop in future installments. While I am not positive, I am wondering if she isn’t the daughter of Luke. I have my doubts because of the times involved, unless Luke spent some time on Rakku before going into seclusion.

Finn is a very interesting character. He seems unsure of himself and what direction he wants to go in, except his conscious will no longer allow him to be a part of the First Order. He also provides some great moments of comic relief which are brilliantly scattered throughout the film. But he is also no wimp; he didn’t hesitate to take up the lightsaber and bravely fight Ren.

Poe is the best pilot the resistance have and is also quite the heroic figure. I like his swagger and he would appear to be a natural leader of troops. I am hoping for more character development in the future.

Kylo Ren is not what I expected. He is a character full of conflict until he kills Han, his father, which tips the scale for him as a full blown evil person who may well be beyond redemption. When I first saw the film, I was not sure that he was the right actor for the role, after he had taken his mask off that is. He has no outward scars, but after the second viewing, it is obvious that he is full of inward scars. Ren’s costume, while somewhat imposing, didn’t have the same impact that Vader’s did for me. One question I have is why is he wearing a mask? Other than the Storm Troopers, the only reason for a mask was that it was part of a life support system. I think that perhaps Ren’s mask might be a tribute to his grandfather, or perhaps it is a symbolic gesture to hide that fact that he is conflicted.

Snoke is also an underdeveloped character who would seem to be pure evil incarnate. Large and imposing, his look is rough and it makes me curious about his backstory.

The commander of the army, General Hux for me was the most hateful character in the whole film. He made his presence known in his speech to the massed troops which made me feel very uncomfortable. It reminded me of speeches given by Adolph Hitler with it’s hateful tone and seemingly complete disregard for human life. That part was brilliantly written and acted and gave me what I think was the intended effect.

It was great to see Max Von Sydow involved in this project even though his presence was all too brief.

ON THE FILM AS A WHOLE

First of all, I should like to say that there wasn’t anything that I didn’t like about this film. For me personally, it was as close to a perfect film as one can get. It had a full run of emotions and it was most assuredly a fun ride from the beginning to the end. Right from the start, I mean the very first opening seconds, I knew I was going to like what was coming because there was the Lucasfilm logo followed by the “A Long Time Ago, In A Galaxy Far, Far Away…” Although I missed the 20th Century Fox fanfare that has preceded every other Star Wars film, I was very relieved that they didn’t plaster the Disney castle or the Bad Robot on to the beginning. I thought that was very respectful to the franchise and I, for one, really appreciated that.

Force Awakens just feels like a Star Wars film. I think I feel that way because they actually built sets and filmed on locations and everything just looked more real than it would have if it had been all done with CG effects. Not that I don’t appreciate and understand why it is necessary to use CG to create other-worldly vistas. The Star Wars prequels would not have been possible without CG, but one can tell. They are very slick and glitzy, and many of the scenes have a cartoonish feel to them, but not in Force Awakens. As good as the artists that create on computers are, and they are very good, there is nothing that can replace filming on location to bring one into believing what is on the screen.

On the death of Han Solo, this was completely unexpected on my part and was emotionally jarring. I thought I was going to openly weep at this point in the film. It was difficult to see Han fall off that catwalk and realize that he will never again appear in another Star Wars film. The scene was well written and executed and I will miss him. One of the most important aspects of viewing a film for me is that I am able to become emotionally invested in what I am seeing and as far as Force Awakens, I was completely immersed in what was happening at all times.

In short, I was entertained and I love this movie!

THE NAYSAYERS

Earlier I wrote that I thought this was very nearly the perfect film, but over the past few days I have read numerous articles that range from “it is a good film, but” all the way to “Force Awakens sucks” followed by lists of reasons why the writers of those pieces feel the way they do. Many of them are lists of plot holes that they have discovered and expound on, some quite harshly and in vulgar epithets.

While I will agree, there may be a few plot holes, I don’t go to see a movie with the intention of nit-picking it to death. I just want to be entertained and escape reality for a little while. One of the plot holes I saw that was in almost every article I read was on Poe Dameron’s apparent death and resurrection that went without explanation. Poe and Finn crashed in their stolen Tie Fighter and headed back to Rakku, where they subsequently crash landed. After a brief time being unconscious, Finn walks away from the crash after performing a brief search of the vehicle, And finding Poe’s jacket. Later, Poe arrives at Takodana leading a squadron of fighters, after being presumed dead. Apparently Poe was thrown clear of the crash and was just not within sight of the Tie.

Why is this a problem for so many? Perhaps the naysayers just want to show how clever they can be by nitpicking something to death. Perhaps they just have nothing better to do. Personally, I would rather choose to to and be entertained and have a little fun for a couple of hours. Oh well.

ET TU, GEORGE?

Even Star Wars creator, George Lucas apparently became on of the naysayers when being interviewed by Charlie Rose calling Disney ‘white slavers’ for their treatment of his franchise, which The Mouse paid some $4 billion! This was lashed all over the Internet, I cannot count how many times it showed up on my Facebook timeline, and many seemed to be saying “see, even our beloved George didn’t like it, so you shouldn’t either.” What hasn’t shown up on my timeline was the retraction and apology that Lucas made saying that his remark was inappropriate.

IN CONCLUSION

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is one hell of a movie. While it is clearly a remake of Episode IV: A New Hope, this doesn't detract from the entertainment value and the introduction of new characters, as well as how old characters begin to hand off the torch. The action begins in the opening seconds of the film and it doesn’t stop until the credits roll. THere are plenty of surprises, twists, and turns and I think this is a great film to reintroduce the younger generation to something we older folk have enjoyed for many years.

Well, there it is…

Qaplah! (Klingon for “May The Force Be With You”)