January 12: The Book Thief (2013 -- Brian Percival)

★★★★

January 6: Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015 -- J. J. Abrams)

★★★★

We’re overdue a Star Wars movie that doesn’t involve a two-pronged attack on a Death Star.  It’s surprising that JJ Abrams would turn to that plot yet again.

But everything else works great in The Force Awakens, especially its nostalgic, change-of-era mood.  Camera and lighting show Hans Solo, Leia and Luke as out of shape, stooped, wrinkled and weathered by time and experience, while Rey, Finn and Poe are energetic, open, strong and eager.  Even R2D2 yields narrative time to BB-8, and Kylo Ren has emerged as a boyish-faced Darth Vader bad guy.  To his credit, Abrams makes this transition one of the themes of the film.  The older generation provides knowledge, advice, connections and support to the new characters, while the young bring their sincerity and passion.  And a strength here is that the older still have important contributions to make in the continuing fight against the Dark Side.

And this central theme aside, there are other strong elements to the film.  It’s got great visuals, especially the large-scale shots of the wrecked Imperial Destroyer and the special effects around the battles.  The story moves quickly, too, and the stakes rise as it goes from Jakku – where we meet Rey with no backstory – to the Star Killer base. There are moments of wit, like when a laser shot is suspended in the air by Ren only to suddenly burst forward after he leaves, and there are moments of drama, loss and sadness.  The new actors bring a freshness to their roles, especially John Boyega as Finn.  He launches into Finn with all the game energy and sincerity that Buster Crabbe gives to Flash Gordon.  Also, kudos to Abrams for the satisfying references to and embellishments on the earlier films; these rarely seem like superfluous fan feed.  The Force Awakens leaves us satisfied and interested in Rian Johnson’s next installment, when we’ll be able to learn more about the relations among the different characters.

This film is a fun time at the movies and even works on a meta- level.  Just as Hans, Leia and Luke are handing to a new generation the battle with the Dark Side, so does The Force Awakens represent the George Lucas generation handing this cinematic myth to the next generation.  It’s off to a strong start here.

January 4: Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983 -- Richard Marquand)

★★★★

Return of the Jedi is a return to some of the strengths of A New Hope.  Richard Marquand has wisely chosen to knock back the exposition that dragged on The Empire Strikes Back, and he keeps the narrative engine buzzing.  Several character reveals hold our attention, and we remain interested in questions like whether Darth Vader can be redeemed or not.  All these keep us involved.

That said, we didn’t need a repeat here of a two-stream narrative whose main goal is the destruction a Death Star.  That plot was interesting in A New Hope but points to an imaginative void in this film.  Likewise, the cloying cuteness of the Ewoks drags on Return.  While none of the original Star Wars trilogy aspires to realism, not even characters in the Flash Gordon serials played to the audience as obviously as these teddy bears do.

But there is still the universe of Star Wars at the core of this film, a story with some suspense, characters we love and issues of some importance.  That’s more than many films offer.

January 2: Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980 -- Irvin Kershner)

★★★

Much of the good in this film comes from Part IV – the setting, the characters, the look, the special effects and the music.  And as in Part IV, clunky lines and stiff acting don’t detract from the action, and we’re still engaged by basic values like loyalty, love and self-sacrifice.

But in A New Hope, classic movie-serial plotting keeps us in a story that's unspooling as fast we we can follow, while The Empire Strikes Back bogs down at many points in excessive exposition.   Luke’s time with Yoda lingers too long, includes too many soliloquies on the Force, and has too much repetition, like Luke's failures and the lectures he gets.  And for a Star Wars film, The Empire Strikes Back  takes too long to restart its action in the Cloud City after the initial battle on Hoth.  These lulls unwind the narrative spring in the other parts of the film and, if we’re not interested in the philosophy, it's easy to drop out of the film.

Empire Strikes Back aims at large ideas, but in doing so, it misses the engaging story that enlivens A New Hope.  This an interesting film, but in substituting ideas for action, it involves us less in its characters and their concerns.

January 1: Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977 -- George Lucas)

★★★★★

Nearly 40 years after its release, the effects here not as amazing as they were in 1977, but the cinematic experience is just as wonderful.  With the same narrative propulsion that kept bringing Flash Gordon fans back to those 1930s serials, Star Wars races ahead with drive that delights us and keeps us wanting to know what happens next.  Added to that, a variety of settings and characters keeps us watching, like in Flash Gordon, and John Williams’ music stimulates our emotion throughout.

Star Wars IV is pure, classic cinematic fun.  It has a finger on common concerns and values like family, friendship, and longing, and the film isn’t devoid of ideas either.  But the movie has a distillation of story-telling that’s a tremendous to experience and that will undoubtedly appeal to many for a very long time.