Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) Movie Review
PG-13 | 135 min
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Director: J.J. Abrams
Writer: Lawrence Kasdan & J.J. Abrams and Michael Arndt
Stars: Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, & Mark Hamill
Plot: A continuation of the saga created by George Lucas and set thirty years after Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983).
NO SPOILER REVIEW!!!!
You could that I have been waiting for this movie to happen since I was a child watching the original trilogy over and over always wondering what had happened after the happy ending. There were tons of expanded universe novels and comics and even video games that I was not exposed to until I had access to libraries and video game consoles. When I got around to experiences those stories, they were very good, from the New Republic being built to the remnants of Darth Vader still being a major factor after Return of the Jedi ended.
All those stories are no longer canon and mostly for good reasons. They were mostly just us having a way to continuing the story by creating it ourselves. When Disney bought Star Wars, was a bit bothered at first, but then I remembered what they had just done with Avengers and the Marvel universe. Making the fun lighter comic books movies good for the first time really.
If I were to sum up the movie in one sentence it would be that "its like poetry, it rhymes." because that was the running theme in the movie. Oddly enough this was the first Star Wars movie that felt like a sequel. Meaning that if you were to take out all the original trilogy and even Star Wars from the title this movie wouldn't be regarded as so good as it is getting.
It feels like that JJ, was just playing it very safe, which is smart to do, but you also have to take risks. Taking chances to make your movie stand out from all the other films. Unfortunately the movie doesn't do that and kinda leaves a forgettable taste afterward, meaning that as soon as the movie/ scenes are over, you've forgotten what has just happened. This is more of a editing and pacing issue that I've had with most films by J.J. Abrams where he doesn't really let the moment sink in before something else is going on.
The strong points of the film are the new characters and even some of the old one too. I really enjoyed Finn, Rey and Poe Dameron who all worked well in their interactions with each other and even had potential to take on the mantles from the old characters we know. Speaking of the old character, Han Solo steps it up in this one, Harrison Ford get back into the character fantastically and even though older, you never felt like you weren't watching Han Solo on the screen.
There were things throughout the movie I would've liked done differently, but that is just more of what I wanted that looking at it what the movie delivered. I will dive into that in my Spoiler Review, later this weekend.
All in all The Force Awakens is still one of the most entertaining movies we've gotten all year and is definitively a movie to see in theaters with other fans or friends. Many fans are saying its the return of Star Wars and in many ways it is, from the look to the overall attention to detail this really is the best Star Wars movie we've gotten since Return of the Jedi.
Its a start of a new trilogy that will hopefully go to new and interesting places that the Star Wars universe has never seen before. With Rian Johnson writing and directing Episode 8, I think we are in for a different ride and feel that will be coming in 2017. Until then The Force Awakens is a nice return that fits in nicely with the all the previous films before it.
Rating:
