“Redeeming Star Wars”

Enough time has lapsed since the official opening of the new Star Wars movie back on December 18 that we can have some perspective on it.

By the way, Keith Richards and my dad were both born on December 18. If you know me, you know how weird that is.

Back to Star Wars: The Force Awakens…excerpts from an outstanding review —

“What was the point of that movie?” my son asked me as the credits rolled on Star Wars: The Force Awakens. He didn’t ask with hostility. He knew what he’d seen was about more than what he’d seen.

Star Wars has always been about fathers and sons, good and evil, friendship and courage. But The Force Awakens has the added burden of righting an entire franchise.

The young hotshots of the early films are now elders mulling over failure and loss, trying to figure out how to make things right.

Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) have, like the disciples in John 21, gone back to their old ways of life. Their marriage didn’t work; their children are troubled. Anybody who has lived a little since 1983 can relate.

When the galaxy’s new heroine, Rey (Daisy Ridley), hands a blue lightsaber to a member of the original cast, the message is clear. A new generation saves an old one; the child redeems the parent.

— I highly recommend the entire review and reflection to you: https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2015-12/redeeming-star-wars

And I’ll see you tomorrow, not “in a galaxy far, far away” but right here.