The Force Awakens Review

It's finally here

The latest entry to the Star Wars universe is finally here. I am only two hours removed from watching the film so this might be more of a first impression than a review. So…How good was it? Well… Pretty darn good. It is not a perfect movie, but I found it very enjoyable.

I will try not to ruin the movie for anyone so this review will not contain any spoilers. There surprisingly isn’t a lot to spoil. The Force Awakens is in some ways a mirror of the original Star Wars. It’s opening is similar. Even the introduction of the new guy in all black brought back memories of Darth Vader on his quest to find two mischievous droids. The film’s introduction was very strong. I am not sure if it was the anticipation but the first 30 minutes of The Force Awakens was basically everything I wanted.

The afore mentioned guy in black, Kylo Ren, was awesome. He ranks up there with Darth Maul and even Vader. I can imagine him as a young Vader a few years after the Revenge of the Sith; he is extremely powerful but also lacks maturity. They really nailed this character.

And you thought Darth Maul was cool.

John Boyega as Finn and Daisy Ridley as Rey were also spot on. I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of comic relief Boyega brought. Ridley did a great job portraying Rey’s strength of character. I am not sure how much I like the actor but I found Oscar Issac as Poe Dameron to be surprisingly likable. The overall casting was very refreshing in contrast to the prequels.

The film’s cinematography was noteworthy. This movie looked a lot more like Star Wars than the prequels. I commend J.J. Abram’s use of practical effects over CGI. There were a few scenes that felt a little out of place but the overall “feel” was great.

Practical effects are neat!

I can’t go too much into the story without spoiling anything but it was satisfying. The introduction was solid; the ending was good; The middle, however, slowed down a bit. While this movie flowed a lot better than any of the prequels, I don’t think it flowed quite as well as A New Hope. There is a sequence that shows what Han Solo has been up to since the Return of the Jedi that felt more like Guardians of the Galaxy than it did Star Wars. The overall story was still pretty interesting tough.

While the movie was largely satisfying, there were a few misses. I felt that Captain Phasma was wasted and I really hope she plays a bigger role in the upcoming movies. I wish there was more exposition about how the New Order came to be and what happened after the Empire. I also thought General Hux was a little unconvincing and perhaps too young to have the responsibilities he had. Youth and inexperience seemed to be a theme in this film; the New Order seemed like a proto empire with all of its key pieces still in flux. General Leia didn’t really add much to the movie and finally, Starkiller base felt like a retread of the death star.

Even with its few misses, I think this new entry into the Star Wars universe will hold up nicely as time goes by. It might be the kind of movie I end up liking more each time I watch it. It certainly does a lot more right than it does wrong.

December 2017 - I have revised my score from 8.5 to 8

Yeah, this movie has lost some of its luster after rewatching it a few times. It’s still pretty entertaining, but it is such a retread of A New Hope that I have to bump it down a notch.