STAR WARS THE FORCE AWAKENS REACTIONS DRIVER

STAR WARS THE FORCE AWAKENS REACTIONS DRIVER

It’s telling, and surpassingly cool, that the last time Isaac and Driver worked together was on a Coen brothers film, the New York folk-scene drama “ Inside Llewyn Davis.” That says a lot about the taste of Abrams, who has a wonderful eye for faces and for evoking the worlds of bygone “Star Wars” films while introducing new ones. Oscar Isaac brings just the right amount of cocksure street smarts to his role as Poe Dameron, and Adam Driver is similarly right-on as a shadowy, somewhat simian figure named Kylo Ren.Ĭhewbacca (Peter Mayhew) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford) return for more than simple cameos. Daisy Ridley resembles the plucky younger sister of Emma Watson and Keira Knightley as Rey, a scrappy, steampunk-ish scavenger who befriends a wandering soldier named Finn (John Boyega). Suffice it to say that Abrams has done stellar work by casting actors who will be unknown to most filmgoers but who shoulder their responsibilities with skill and confidence. It even seems churlish to go into too much detail about specific characters and their roles in this world of futuristic fascism and ragtag chivalry. That’s enough synopsis for “The Force Awakens,” which deserves to be enjoyed with as clean a slate as possible, plot-wise. A resistance movement is fighting back, led by General Leia Organa, who as the film opens has enlisted her finest fighter pilot to find Luke and enlist his Jedi powers on behalf of the rebel forces. The minute the lights go down, John Williams’s brassy anthem starts up and the opening crawl begins, explaining that Skywalker has been missing for the past 30 years, during which time an evil empire known as the First Order has taken power. He’s gotten the band back together in a perfectly balanced performance of oldies and new riffs, respecting all that’s come before but never getting mired in minutiae or fatuous nostalgia.Ībrams isn’t coy or gratuitously manipulative when it comes to pleasing his audience.

What’s more, Abrams has united the original cast with a group of newcomers who mesh seamlessly with their elders, in an ensemble effort that brims with the chops and brio of a great jam session. Filled with incident, movement and speed, dusted with light layers of tarnished “used future” grime, it captures the kinetic energy that made the first film, from 1977, such a revelation to filmgoers who marveled at Lucas’s mashup of B movies, Saturday-morning serials, Japanese historical epics and mythic heft. “The Force Awakens” strikes all the right chords, emotional and narrative, to feel both familiar and exhilaratingly new. It’s the kind of high-stakes quest worthy of Luke Skywalker himself, and - as he did with the 2009 reboot of “ Star Trek” - Abrams has proved himself worthy of the charge. Abrams, is the seventh in the main “Star Wars” series. The latest trailer for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” was unveiled during halftime of ESPN’s Monday Night Football.

Star wars the force awakens reactions