Written by Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan (who also wrote The Empire Strikes Back), based on earlier work by Michael Arndt ( Toy Story 3), the movie is shrewdly if prosaically constructed to bridge the series’ past and future. Later, when the cagy, wizened pirate queen Maz Kanata (Lupita Nyong’o, captivating but unrecognizable in a digital part), advises her to look ahead, not back, she’s already leaning forward. Abandoned on the desert planet of Jakku at age 5, she’s waited for her family’s return ever since, scratching each passing day on her wall like a prisoner marking time in a cell. Like everyone else in this sequel (episode seven in the series, set three decades past Return of the Jedi), Rey arrives on the scene with a ton of baggage, but she carries hers lightly. No one can best her at life-or-death games of “who blinks first.” As the movie powers its way across another galaxy-spanning spasm in the balance of Good and Evil, Ridley responds to the cosmic fascism of the First Order and the stirring heroics of the Resistance with scintillating intensity. It’s no spoiler to say that the Force is strong within her, and it’s no disrespect to her cast-mates to say that her presence elevates the movie. Abrams, puts a vast, diverse ensemble through Tilt-A-Whirl combinations of centrifugal and gravitational force. Her fresh, go-get-’em character gives audiences an emotional focus while the movie’s director, J.J. She supplies the heady new wine for a bottled-up, 38-year-old franchise. But for Maz Kanata, I’m more than fine if the franchise is done with her.As the desert scavenger Rey, British actress Daisy Ridley unleashes a talent that flashes like a beacon amid the enjoyable clatter of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I’m glad that I don’t feel that way about all the other newcomers, who have emotional ranges and the promise of interesting arcs. That’s not what you want to take away from a supposedly pivotal character. No one needs to check in with Maz after she’s handed off a lightsaber because there’s nothing more to say. So while Lupita Nyong’o filmed scenes at the Resistance base, those scenes were deemed useless for the finished film. It should be noted that an earlier cut of the film tried to keep Maz in play, and that she handed Luke’s lightsaber directly to Leia, but Abrams felt it was unnecessary. If she’s alive, she’s alive, and if not, so what. Presumably, she survives since her death would give the movie a little bit more in the way of added stakes by showing that the First Order can kill New Yoda, but since the movie leaves it ambiguous, her exit is treated with all of the gravity of a shrug. We don’t even know for sure if she survives the First Order’s assault on her home. What kind of game is she running? How does she have so much, and how does she bridge such a gap in clientele and design? I’m not saying that a dive bar can’t be found in grand place, but in The Force Awakens, it feels like yet another example of Abrams emulating the original trilogy without thinking of form following function.Įxcept once she hands Finn Luke’s lightsaber, the film forgets about her. There are nice little touches like the flags that line the outside of her cantina castle, but already we’re stuck-why is a cantina also a castle? Abrams wants to have that Mos Eisley feel, but he’s putting it in a place where the bar owner has a gigantic statue of herself at the top of her castle. It feels like being around for over 1,000 years she had accumulated a lot of stuff, but nothing specific. While I’m willing to accept a collection of qualities in a protagonist like Rey (great fighter, great pilot, strong with the Force), especially one who’s groundbreaking and meant to be a hero to young girls in the audience who have never had a figure they can emulate, for a supporting character like Maz, it’s too much. That’s not a character that’s a plot device. She’s good for giving the new kids the skinny on the light side/dark side. While the transitive property of us trusting Han means we should trust Maz, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to give a bar owner control of BB-8, and therefore the fate of the universe. We’re just told that this is a voice of wisdom and we should trust her. There’s a shorthand that’s been skillfully dropped in, and the character’s importance is conveyed without having to pause for a moment of import, which is exactly what the film does when she then sits down at a table with Rey, Finn, and Han and guides them on what to do next.īecause The Force Awakens is in a bit of a rush (it’s a movie that tries to do a lot), we don’t ease into knowing or appreciating Maz.
The one moment where she breaks free of being a Yoda imitation is when she asks Han about Chewbacca, and says, “I like that wookiee.” It hints at a specific history she has with Han and a worthwhile adventure off screen.