Official Website

Director: J.J. Abrams

Writers: Lawrence Kasdan, J.J. Abrams, Michael Arndt

Runtime: 135 min

Main Cast:

• Daisey Ridley as Rey
• John Boyega as Finn
• Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron
• Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker
• Harrison Ford as Han Solo
• Carrie Fisher as Leia
• Adam Driver as Kylo Ren
• Gwendolyn Christie as Captain Phasma

Review: by Anthony

I've been so excited to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  It's finally here! The start of a new franchise, a new director, a new young cast, and all the nostalgia you can handle.

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It’s been thirty years since the events of Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi and a lot has happened.  Han Solo and Chewbacca help some new allies fight a new threat to the galaxy in Kylo Ren and his Stormtroopers.

What I Liked:

Can I say everything?

The special effects, practical effects, and CGI were fantastic.  I really hope The Force Awakens continues the trend revamped by Mad Max: Fury Road of the large set pieces filled with to-scale models and practical effects.  The planets felt huge, the ships felt huge, the dog-fights between the TIE fighters and X-Wing Starfighters were great.  I liked the design of a lot the new aliens I saw, like Maz Kanata; and some of the older aliens we’ve seen in earlier movies looked well.

The acting was top notch.

Harrison Ford still has it.  I don’t know if there was a question if he’s lost it or not but man oh man, he could play Han Solo in his sleep.  Carrie Fisher is simply amazing.  Basically, any and every scene with Han and Leia is amazing and you might start tearing up.

John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, and Adam Driver blew me away.  I’m so excited to have them lead the new trilogy.  Out of the three principle actors, I was only familiar with Adam Driver from Girls and Inside Llewyn Davis.  I knew he had greatness in him but man oh man. Driver’s Kylo Ren may be my favorite character in The Force Awakens.

Lupita Nyong’o, Gwendolyn Christie, Oscar Isaac, and Domhnall Gleeson all turn in stellar performances as well.  Gleeson is one of my favorite young actors these days, from first seeing him in the Harry Potter series as Bill Weasley, to Ex Machina and a great episode of Black Mirror. He’s just an overall solid actor.

The backstories and motivation that drove the characters of Rey, Finn, and Kylo Ren are amazing.  It’s so good.

Finn has a life he’s running away from, Rey has a life she’s been waiting on to start, and Kylo Ren worships at the mantle of and desperately chases after the power Darth Vader wielded.

That’s just the smaller plot lines, spoilers withheld – because they add a whole new layer to the awesomeness.  Oh yeah, John Williams is back doing the score and the opening theme is just as classic as ever.

If that wasn’t enough there’s a surprising amount of comedic beats laid within the sci-fi opera.  BB8, much like R2-D2 and C-3P0, serves as a great comedic source and is full of personality even though he only beeps and whistles.

What I Didn’t Like:

The only thing I didn’t like, which really isn’t the biggest knock, is that the overall plot feels safe and predictable.  Some of the major and overall plot points from The Force Awakens crawled out of the nostalgia pit along with some of the familiar faces from the previous movies.  Again, this didn’t rub me too raw.  In fact, there were a few moments in some action sequences where I could predict what would happen next and when it happened, I rejoiced because it was done so well.

“If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” applies  well to The Force Awakens.  These storylines while feeling re-used, don’t offend because it comes off as an honest homage to the prior films opposed to a wack carbon copy.

Images Courtesy of IMDB