I saw the original Star Wars in 1977 and remember it being unlike anything that I had ever seen before. Apart from the special effects, lightsaber fights, dogfights between X-Wing Fighters and Tie Fighter the thing that most impressed me was more pedestrian - the chemistry between the three main characters. So despite all of the wonders of film technology on display in 1977 I was more hooked by the strength of the casting than anything else. Moviegoers cared for Luke, Leia and Han and identified with them in a significant way.
That feeling was reinforced in the subsequent films, but especially in the best of the three original films, The Empire Strikes Back. That film was Harrison Ford's show and he delivered big time. So in the world of Star Wars, for me at least, the central character was Han Solo, and the charisma that Ford brought to that role.
Character development was the missing element in the three prequels which followed. Those films were marred beyond repair by boring political backstory, lifeless characters and often wooden dialogue. The insertion of the stupid Jar Jar Binks role in The Phantom Menace felt more vaguely offensive than comic. The lack of any real action simply reinforced the reality that there was no spark at all between any of the main characters. Furthermore the performances of both of the youthful Anakin Skywalkers were often nearly unwatchable. They surely would and probably did cause the most devoted Star Wars aficionado to throw his toy lightsaber at the screen! There definitely was no Han Solo-like character to save the day.
So that brings us to the new film by director J.J Abrams. I saw it this past weekend and certainly felt the excitement others report in seeing action finally returning to the series. Yes we have seen most of this before in the original productions, but it was done with obvious care and respect for those films. Actually this may also be viewed as a weakness of the film as well - we have seen this all before - but it works if the characters and their interactions are compelling. Indeed those character interactions were quite engaging, at least to me. But once again Han Solo is a central figure, and Harrison Ford frankly stole the show for me.
Therein lies the real weakness of the film and the planned series. Han Solo is murdered by his son, Rylo Ken. The actors playing Rey, Fin and Rylo Ken are certainly not wooden, but can they sustain a whole film on their own? If Han Solo and the edginess he brings to the role are not present would this film have received the number of positive views that it has? We can't answer that, but we will find out because now Solo has been killed off. Obviously the filmmakers are counting on the return of Luke Skywalker to be the most compelling factor in the next film, but that's hard to measure when you consider the very odd ending of this film. Abrams used almost the entire film to build up Luke's exile and mysterious whereabouts on an incomplete star map, but the final scene felt tacked on. A wordless meeting between Luke and Rey, who holds out his long lost lightsaber for him as the credits begin to roll just doesn't quite have the cinematic or emotional payoff that the scene demands, in my mind, but then I am no filmmaker. I'll eagerly await to see what they do with this story.