BluRay Review: The Force Awakens
This review may contain spoilers.
I’ve been procrastinating watching the BluRay for The Force Awakens. It got sent to me the week before release, and yet I left it on the shelf, ignoring it’s pleading looks. It so desperately wanted to be watched but I ignored it for quite some time.
I had my reasons. Pretty simple reasons. The Force Awakens was pretty much the best film of last year, a film that I ended up watching three times during it’s theatrical run. That’s something I’ve never done with any film, ever. I even paid huge sums of money to experience it on the Imax screen.
But now I was supposed to watch it on my 48 inch screen from my old couch at home. How would this ever compete with the three cinema viewings that I had seen? Would it lessen the film for me? Would it ruin the experience? I just didn’t want to run the risk of my fourth viewing being a disappointment.
I couldn’t procrastinate forever so on the weekend I slipped the BluRay into my PS4 and sat back to see if the magic was still there.
It was.
From the moment the text crawl appered on the screen to the massive Star Destroyer filling the frame I was filled with the same giddy excitement that washed over me during my first viewing of The Force Awakens.
If one line could sum up the entire experience it would be “Chewie, we’re home.”
The Force Awakens is a lovingly crafted re-boot (of sorts) that recognizes the importance of the original characters along side the need to have a culturally relevant new hero.
Casting a female in the role of the next Jedi was a brave but necessary move and the casting of Daisy Ridley as Rey was pure genius. Her screen presence is mesmerizing.
Of course a lot of the film’s highlights revolve around the original characters and machines. We first meet Rey when she is scavenging parts in what looks like a massive mothballed factory. It’s not until Rey leaves that we get to see that it is in fact a crashed Star Destroyer. It gets better however when we discover that Rey lives in the remains of a fallen At-At.
Of course seeing the Millennium Falcon again is the icing on the cake. From there on we get to meet all the old characters, witness one of the most harrowing scenes in Star Wars history when Han Solo opens his arms to his prodigal son, and get to finish the film on a bit of a let down when we meet the cardboard cut out mute that is an old Luke Skywalker.
But until that final scene where we are left in desperate need of more, the film cracks along at an impressive pace mixing plenty of action with the occasional comic relief in a coming of age story that should really take off in the second film.
Watching The Force Awakens on BluRay was just as epic as it was on the big-screen. With crisp visuals and massive sound, my fourth viewing only made me want 2017 to come all the more sooner.
But wait, there’s more. In-fact an entire second disk of special features, which whilst not as amazing as the film itself, are well worth watching. I normally don’t bother with special features, but I remembered how as a kid I loved seeing the behind the scenes documentary on Star Wars, seeing how all the models were made and the evolution of blockbuster special effects. And just as I was as a kid, I was drawn into the level of detail that when into making The Force Awakens.
Rating: M Violence.
FILMGUIDE rating:
