Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens
Director: J J Abrams
Starring: Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac
Five stars
When Disney bought Lucasfilm and the George Lucas-created Star Wars franchise, you could have been be forgiven for echoing the sci-fi saga’s much-used phrase: “I have a bad feeling about this.”
But fans can rest easy – Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens marks a sensational return to that galaxy far, far away. Directed by J J Abrams, Episode VII is the Star Wars film you're looking for: bold but beautiful, nostalgic but new.
Set 30 years after the events of 1983's Episode VI – Return of the Jedi, a new militaristic organisation, The First Order, has risen from the ashes of the defeated Empire. Luke Skywalker, the young hero of the original trilogy, played by Mark Hamill, has vanished. And the mysterious Jedi knights, of which he is the last, have once again slipped into myth and legend.
Where is Luke? That's a question that drives much of the plot of The Force Awakens, as his sister Leia (Carrie Fisher) – the one-time princess, now a general leading of the resistance – sends her most daring pilot, Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), to the desert planet of Jakku – the scenes set on which were filmed in Abu Dhabi – to pick up his trail. There, he meets an old ally – played by the venerable veteran actor Max von Sydow, whose presence immediately echoes Luke's encounter with Alec Guinness in 1977's Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope.
Accompanied by BB-8 – the new, spherical Droid that rivals series stalwart R2-D2 in the cuteness stakes – Dameron’s mission introduces an array of new characters. The main pair are scavenger Rey (Daisy Ridley), who has been abandoned on Jakku by her parents, and Finn (John Boyega), a stormtrooper with a conscience who goes rogue after finding the goodness inside himself.
Standing opposite them is Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), The First Order’s masked apprentice who leads the charge to find and destroy Luke Skywalker.
But the real emotion in the film comes with the return of space pirate Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and his 7ft-tall Wookie sidekick Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), who instantly restore to the series the humour and warmth that was missing from Lucas’ disastrous 1999-2005 prequel trilogy.
Abrams, who already rescued the Star Trek franchise from limbo with two credible reboot movies, innately understands the key elements that make a Star Wars movie. Boasting the talents of screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan, who co-wrote the saga's high-point, 1980's Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, the film revisits the father-son theme of the original trilogy, albeit with a smart twist.
Locations, props, characters and set-ups also deliberately recall past adventures.
The action is visceral and vivid – not least an early sequence in which Ridley’s Rey takes control of Han Solo’s “hunk of junk” spacecraft The Millennium Falcon, flying it in and out of the wreckage of Star Destroyers in Jakku’s desert, with The First Order’s TIE Fighters in hot pursuit.
But it's the texture of the film that really impresses: this is a Star Wars film you feel you can touch – another thing that was missing from Lucas' CGI-heavy prequels.
What really surprises, however, is the powerful emotion of it all. Yes, hearing C-3PO chatter away or watching a lightsaber ignite brings an automatic lump to the throat.
But this Star Wars earns its tears, with killer character arcs and a final shot that is arguably the best the series has delivered in all its 38 years. The force is most certainly strong in this one.
artslife@thenational.ae
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
MATCH INFO
Manchester United 1 (Greenwood 77')
Everton 1 (Lindelof 36' og)
Scoreline:
Cardiff City 0
Liverpool 2
Wijnaldum 57', Milner 81' (pen)
The Matrix Resurrections
Director: Lana Wachowski
Stars: Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jessica Henwick
Rating:****
