STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS
Release Date: December 18, 2015
Directed By: JJ Abrams
Written By: JJ Abrams, Lawrence Kasdan, Michael Arndt
Starring: Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Harrison Ford, Oscar Issac, Adam Driver
Star Wars: The Force Awakens was the movie I anticipated most in 2015. In fact, it may be the movie I anticipated most in the decade. As a Star Wars fan for as long as I remember, this movie obviously meant a lot to me. I grew up obsessing over the series, watching the original trilogy time after time, sometimes multiple times in a row. Even though I was not even alive for the first three movies, they were still a major part of my childhood and as ridiculous as it may sound, affected the type of person who I am today. The story of Luke Skywalker, a simple farmboy becoming a great hero and savior of the galaxy by choosing the light-side, is and always will be a classic tale. Even the much-hated prequels connected to me, and though I may dislike them as movies today, still influenced my life. The movies stuck with me as a grew older and I became more interested in film. I still consider
The Empire Strikes Back to be one of the greatest films of all time, and my personal favorite.
Going into
The Force Awakens I tried my hardest to have no expectations. I didn't want it to be disappointing. But even though I may have tried my hardest to remain neutral about the film, I couldn't help myself in feeling ridiculously excited. As I stepped into the theater on December 17, 2015 I felt an overwhelming happiness rush over myself.
Please, please be good.
The Good:
The Force Awakens was my favorite movie of the year. Not only did it meet my near neutral expectations, it surpassed them. For me, Star Wars has almost always been about the characters. The characters journey, the results of the characters actions and their interactions with each other. And one thing I can say for sure is that the characters of
The Force Awakens were my favorite part of the film. While I do understand why some fans felt upset over how Rey, one of the protagonists, appeared to be very similar to Luke Skywalker, I believe her story is a necessary part of the new Star Wars trilogy. Her and Luke's stories are timeless, and although their backstory's seem very similar, I can already tell that their characters will end up being
very different. The other protagonists, Finn and Poe both felt fresh and fit in perfectly, thanks to the well done acting and dialogue from both of their actors. I particularly like how Finn's motivation is simply his good nature, and him choosing to abandon the First Order shows that you do not have to be special to take action when you see something evil. The antagonist, Kylo Ren felt exactly like how I imagine Anakin Skywalker should have been handled in the prequel trilogy. He's an angry teenager with a lot of power. He has tantrums and is often cocky and its easy to tell he isn't always in control, unlike Darth Vader in the
A New Hope. This was a smart move by JJ Abrams as it allows our antagonist to grow along side our protagonists.
Other things I enjoyed from the film were the score, which many people critiqued, but I felt added a lot of new, fantastic themes. I also loved the way the older, familiar characters were set up. I thought Han Solo was set up perfectly, going back to his roots as a two-timing scoundrel who is being hunted down by people he's borrowed money from. Whenever he was on screen, it actually felt like Han Solo was back, which I thought was a near impossible task. Serving as a sort of mentor to both Finn and Rey, he helps give exposition to the audience about what has happened since
Return of the Jedi.
WARNING: spoilers below
His death was also one of my favorite parts of the film. It was the perfect ending for Han Solo. He started out as a rouge only helping the alliance for the money, but he develops into a caring husband, friend and most importantly, father. Having him killed trying to bring his son back from the Dark Side really put emphasis into that. The whole scene on the bridge was ridiculously tense and had me on the edge of my seat the entire time, even though it was mildly predictable. "As long as there's light, we've got a chance!" Poe states. While Han Solo spoke to his son, Kylo Ren, the light from the sun shone on Kylo's face. But as soon as the new Death Star was ready and the sun was completely drained, the light disappeared from Kylo's face, leaving nothing but darkness. He proceeds to kill Han Solo. Han Solo's death felt as a piece of my childhood had left me. Even though I've seen this movie 4 times, that scene still makes me upset.
His death was also one of my favorite parts of the film. It was the perfect ending for Han Solo. He started out as a rouge only helping the alliance for the money, but he develops into a caring husband, friend and most importantly, father. Having him killed trying to bring his son back from the Dark Side really put emphasis into that. The whole scene on the bridge was ridiculously tense and had me on the edge of my seat the entire time, even though it was mildly predictable. "As long as there's light, we've got a chance!" Poe states. While Han Solo spoke to his son, Kylo Ren, the light from the sun shone on Kylo's face. But as soon as the new Death Star was ready and the sun was completely drained, the light disappeared from Kylo's face, leaving nothing but darkness. He proceeds to kill Han Solo. Han Solo's death felt as a piece of my childhood had left me. Even though I've seen this movie 4 times, that scene still makes me upset.
Throughout the entire movie I felt like the older characters represented the generation of people who had seen the movies tons of times, while the new protagonists were the new viewers, with
The Force Awakens being their first movie. Everything in the original trilogy is thought to be a myth, and the old protagonists are there to explain it.
"It's true... all of it."
The Bad:
While I don't believe their to be anything particularly 'bad' in this movie, I do think there were a few things that slightly disappointed me. By no means is this movie perfect and one of the biggest aspects of this film is slightly lacking. Many people have criticized that the plot of the film is simply a rehash and copy of the original Star Wars movie,
A New Hope. They are mostly correct. Even the characters know this. The plot of this film is
extremely similar to
A New Hope, from having the main characters have to deliver a small robot to the good guys, to straight up putting in another Death Star. While all these similarities are completely valid, I don't think it really affects the movie much. The initial movie in both Star Wars trilogies is about setting up our main characters and while the plot is an important aspect, it isn't the purpose of the film.
The Force Awakens is the initial platform of the new Star Wars trilogy and it completely serves its purpose.
The Ugly:
There's not much I thought was ugly in this film. I'm
not going to say Carrie Fisher because to be honest, I think she rocks. The one things I can kind of classify as ugly is one short chase sequence near the middle of the film. The entire movie is filled with amazing and very real looking practical effects and monsters, except for this one part. The characters are basically running away from a poorly CGI'd tentacle monster that looks like it came straight out of a strange Pixar movie. I'll let that scene pass though because I like everything about it, except for the design of the monster.
Although
Star Wars: The Force Awakens was not perfect and had a few
so-so moments, it surpassed expectations and was, in-short, a great movie and a Star Wars sequel that I ended up loving.
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