Star Wars: The Drive Awakens eternally modified Star Wars motion pictures and TV exhibits when it hit theaters 10 years in the past, not solely as Disney’s first Star Wars film but additionally because the film that might outline a brand-new period of the Star Wars timeline, by no means earlier than proven on display screen.
With stakes and expectations equally excessive, The Drive Awakens was confronted with a frightening process: revitalize the Star Wars franchise with beloved creator George Lucas now not on the helm. What ultimately occurred with the sequel trilogy is now historical past, and it is tough to disentangle The Drive Awakens from that bigger ecosystem.
But, ten years on, revisiting The Drive Awakens as its personal standalone story reveals not a film that was already steering the trilogy in direction of failure, however quite one which supplied loads of innovation, promise, and potential, solely to be reduce off on the knees by its successors.
The Drive Awakens: A Promising Begin, With Unfulfilled Potential
From the opening crawl, The Drive Awakens seems like Star Wars. Not Disney-ified Star Wars, both. Kylo Ren (just a little too harking back to Darth Vader although he could also be) is correctly terrifying, and viewers instantly get to see an exhilarating Drive feat, with Kylo freezing Poe Dameron’s blaster bolt and holding it in midair for a number of minutes.
In reality, by the top of what’s basically the film’s chilly open, audiences have already gotten a brand-new purple lightsaber with a novel crossguard design, the return of stormtroopers, a brand new darkish sider with a mysterious household lineage, and the hunt for a map that finally ends up containing the key location of none aside from iconic, galaxy-saving Jedi Luke Skywalker.
It is true that there are additionally loads of beats that really feel acquainted in The Drive Awakens—just a little too acquainted, at many factors. That is definitely the case in the case of Jakku (an apparent Tatooine stand-in) and even Rey, to a sure diploma, as she’s yet one more obvious no-name who’s trapped on a desert planet and has no concept how a lot untapped energy she has. Principally, she’s Luke.
But, as a lot as The Drive Awakens earns its criticisms for borrowing just a little too closely from A New Hope and the unique Star Wars trilogy extra usually, the film is definitely filled with potential and brand-new concepts. Maybe one of the best instance of all is the story of FN-2187, or Finn.
The idea of a defecting stormtrooper who witnesses the horrors of battle/genocide and never solely switches sides but additionally turns into one of the crucial crucial fighters inside the opposition is nothing in need of genius. The truth that he gave the impression to be Drive delicate and primed to develop into a central Jedi (sadly, emphasis on appeared) solely added to how distinctive and thrilling this new arc was.
Wanting solely at The Drive Awakens, the film’s conclusion additionally completely positions Finn’s arc to proceed on precisely that trajectory. Sure, Rey clearly possesses higher energy within the Drive than she is aware of—Kylo Ren straight says so, when chatting with Snoke—however Finn goes ten toes down in opposition to Kylo Ren too, all whereas gripping the Skywalker lightsaber.
It would not harm that Finn actor John Boyega is likely one of the breakout stars of the film. Boyega has apparent chemistry with Rey actress Daisy Ridley and Poe Dameron actor Oscar Isaac, but it surely’s truly Boyega’s scenes with Star Wars legend Harrison Ford, who reprises his function as Han Solo in The Drive Awakens, that actually stand out.
Ford’s return was unsurprisingly iconic, however the scenes through which Han Solo shines finest within the film are primarily these through which Ford is appearing reverse Boyega, who brings out a model of Han that viewers have not seen shortly. “That is not how the Drive works” is likely one of the most frequently quoted traces from the film for a purpose.
Boyega is way from the one breakout of The Drive Awakens, although. This was additionally Adam Driver’s Star Wars debut, and his portrayal of Ben Solo/Kylo Ren is definitely one of many brightest spots of the film.
Of all of the features of The Drive Awakens that really feel just a little too spinoff of the unique trilogy, the overt similarities between Kylo Ren and Darth Vader are simply probably the most forgivable as a result of, narratively, they’re intentional. Kylo is, for one, Darth Vader’s solely organic grandchild (in canon), however he is additionally completely obsessed together with his grandfather.
If Kylo successfully praying to Vader’s deformed helmet did not make that clear sufficient, his fixed have to emulate Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader absolutely does. From his all-black get-up full with a cape to his voice-modulated helmet, it is clear that Kylo actually is only a little one in a masks, enjoying at being a Sith Lord.
However that is what makes Kylo Ren such a fantastic character. Kylo is a darkish aspect Drive-user, sure, however he isn’t a full-fledged Sith, neither is he actually correctly skilled. Due to that, Kylo is chaotic, unpredictable, and erratic in The Drive Awakens. That is mirrored in his lightsaber, too. The blade is unstable as a result of he cracked his kyber crystal—a bodily manifestation of his lack of self-discipline.
The elephant within the room, in fact, is that whereas many new actors and characters in The Drive Awakens had been sensible, the film failed to essentially money in on getting all three authentic trilogy heroes—Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia, Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker, and Harrison Ford’s Han Solo—again on the Star Wars display screen.
Essentially the most obvious difficulty with The Drive Awakens’ strategy to the return of those three Star Wars legends was the absence of Luke Skywalker till the very finish of the film, at which level he is solely briefly proven. (Mark Hamill has joked earlier than about this being his solely “silent film,” and rightly so.)
To place it bluntly, this was a large and admittedly bewildering missed alternative. The truth that all three authentic actors had been again within the galaxy far, far-off, able to reprise their roles, to not point out the limitless narrative alternatives The Drive Awakens had as a result of it was a brand new period within the timeline, ought to have meant an epic reunion.
As a substitute, the three heroes by no means all come again collectively directly—not in The Drive Awakens, and never in the remainder of the sequel trilogy. Worse nonetheless, Luke has develop into a shell of the heroic, hopeful younger Jedi proven on the finish of Return of the Jedi. He is basically unrecognizable in The Drive Awakens, not simply bodily, however when it comes to his lack of hope within the galaxy.
There’s little getting round the truth that Luke Skywalker’s sequel story was botched, and that the difficulty started with this arc in The Drive Awakens. That’s maybe the most important ding in opposition to the film.
Despite that, The Drive Awakens, as a standalone, largely works. It is a enjoyable, high-energy, George Lucas-style manufacturing that introduces a bunch of dynamic new characters and brings among the finest elements of Star Wars again to the large display screen.
Although some may say the alternatives Abrams made went in opposition to what Lucas would have needed, of all of the sequels this feels probably the most like a George Lucas film. Positive, that is perhaps partly as a result of it was modeled so clearly after A New Hope, however even when it comes to the humor and dialogue, The Drive Awakens may be very Lucas-esque.
Essentially the most vital difficulty with The Drive Awakens, technically by means of no fault of its personal, is that the film made some main guarantees, and the sequel trilogy sadly proved unable to maintain them.
All probably the most thrilling features of The Drive Awakens, a lot of which have been talked about above, depended upon the 2 subsequent motion pictures holding up their finish of the cut price, and sadly, the balls had been dropped most of the time. One of many largest controversies stemming from the sequels was the sidelining of Finn and the refusal to substantiate on-screen that he’s Drive-sensitive, for one.
But, maybe probably the most disappointing means Star Wars: The Final Jedi and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker failed The Drive Awakens was with Rey’s story. The Drive Awakens arrange the likelihood that, this time, the stranger from a desert planet with immense energy would not be some higher being within the Star Wars galaxy—a real ‘no one.’
Somewhat than a genuinely revolutionary story (which, in The Final Jedi’s protection, it did try to offer), the sequels gave a brand new era its personal “No, I’m your father” second, with Rey being revealed because the granddaughter of final Star Wars massive dangerous, Emperor Palpatine.
Whereas that reveal got here years after The Drive Awakens was launched, it does harm the film looking back, as a result of it makes Rey’s complete story arc really feel in some way cheapened.
Troublesome as it might be to separate Star Wars: The Drive Awakens from the 2 motion pictures that observe, and the last decade that has handed since, nevertheless, this Star Wars film deserves a greater popularity than it usually has. Particularly as a standalone, this 10-year-old Star Wars film actually holds up.
- Launch Date
-
December 18, 2015
- Runtime
-
136 minutes