Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Those TIE fighters are real death traps.

Those TIE fighters are real death traps.

The first question must be answered right away: Yes, I very much enjoyed J.J. Abrams’s remix of George Lucas’s Star Wars and Irvin Kershner’s The Empire Strikes Back (with only a dash of Richard Marquand’s Return of the Jedi), and so will you, if you have any affection left for the original films.

In fact, I enjoyed Star Wars: The Force Awakens more than I thought I would. It has it all. Great bad dialogue, stunning special effects, and good performances from the principals: Daisy Ridley, who reboots Luke Skywalker in the character of Rey, and John Boyega, who plays Finn, a stormtrooper who can no longer stomach the evil of the Dark Side…

Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory...