Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens Blu-Ray Review

New Hope For The Force

♦ Tripwire gave editor-in-chief Joel Meadows the job of reviewing JJ Abrams’ sci fi behemoth Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Director: JJ Abrams

Stars: Harrison Ford, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill

Star Wars: The Force Awakens was probably the film of the last decade with the greatest expectations attached to it. The prequels released from 1999 to 2005 were disappointing to say the least and so director JJ Abrams and co had ten years of bad feeling to wipe out with the fans. But a decade is an eternity in cinema and so much has changed since Episode III came out back in 2005. The Force Awakens had a monumental box office at cinemas around the world and as of writing this, it has made just over $2bn. So the question here is how does it fare with its transfer to Blu Ray?

Little impact is lost on the smaller screen: the space battles still look epic and the new worlds created for the film from places like the Lake District and Gloucestershire in the UK look almost as sumptuous as they did on the big screen. The plot was criticised for being a virtual retread of A New Hope and there is some validity to this criticism. However, our history is full of examples of different people doing the same things so I think it can be forgiven. There are a few flaws to The Force Awakens: Carrie Fisher sadly just doesn’t work for me and villains The First Order are simply a newer, shinier version of the Empire. But new additions Rey (Daisy Ridley) and former stormtrooper Finn (John Boyega) have a great chemistry on screen and they feel like worthy additions to the Star Wars character canon. Ford as Solo fits in well as the very grizzled old space pirate and hotshot pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) is a decent new creation, although it does feel like he could have done with a little more screen time. Emo villain Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) looks suitably creepy with a voice to match. If you strip them down, the original films were nothing more than pulpy Saturday afternoon radio serials given a bit of a modern spin and Abrams has simply followed in this tradition. He was helped significantly by a talented art department too, creating new worlds for the new set of dramatis personae to inhabit. The film actually works a little better the second time around and there are some nice nods to what has gone before while trying to add something new to proceedings. Abrams should be applauded at injecting new life into what seemed like a dead franchise.

Extras

There are a number of extras on here but the most impressive is documentary that runs for an hour and 10 minutes that looks at the genesis of the movie, Secrets of The Force Awakens: A Cinematic Journey. it gives viewers a decent flavour of the road to the film and offers some insights into its making. The rest are a little more throwaway, the kind of thing you would see up on YouTube. The deleted scenes are fun, especially Kylo Ren on the Millennium Falcon and the snow speeder chase with Rey and Finn. But it does seem that they are saving the choicest bits from what is undoubtedly an impressive visual library for a special edition probably out around Christmas this year.

JOEL MEADOWS

Force Awakens Blu Ray www.tripwiremagazine.co.uk