A Hit Awakens
It’s arguably the most anticipated movie event in over a decade and it’s almost here. Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be released in Irish cinemas this week. When the first teaser trailer was released last year, it was viewed over 50 million times in the first week alone. Advance ticket sales have broken all records. The first reviews are in and they’re mostly positive.
The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw said the film left him “facially exhausted”, because he was grinning non-stop for over two hours. “When Han Solo and Chewie come on, I had a feeling in the cinema I haven’t had since I was 16 — not knowing whether to burst into tears or into applause,” he wrote.
Officially, this is number seven in the series. However, there is such distain for the prequel trilogy, the first of which was released in 1999, that this movie can be justifiably described as the fourth installment.
The Star Wars franchise was purchased from its creator George Lucas by Disney for $4 Billion in 2012. If initial predictions are correct, this movie will earn the Hollywood movie studio $2 Billion making it the second most financial successful film of all time behind James Cameron’s Avatar.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is directed by J.J. Abrams, who also was in charge of the first two Star Trek reboots. The stars of the original trilogy, Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels and Peter Mayhew all return to reprise their original roles along with newcomers Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Max von Sydow.
The story is set approximately 30 years after the events of Return of the Jedi which was released in 1983. Set on a desert planet, a young outsider, comes into possession of a droid that contains some important secret plans that has to be delivered to the leaders of a rebel alliance – with the help of a smuggler and his seven-foot tall furry sidekick… Heard this story before? Not to worry. It’s this familiarity that’s making Star Wars: The Force Awakens so endearing to the critics. Back to basics seems to be the trick in this case and that’s what Star Wars fans really want. One of the (many) reasons the prequel trilogy was a failure was that the movies were weighed down by their own sense of importance and treated the audience like consumers and not fans.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens goes on general release from the 18th of December and will be screened in conventional, Imax and 3D formats.
