Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens

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Late November, 2014 was when the first teaser for a new 'Star Wars' Saga movie, following the episodic pattern, and continuing the story. I was excited, but when the next trailer dropped, featuring an aged Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) saying "we're home", it gave me goosebumps, and I was 100% sold. The trailers did a good job of leaving things to your imagination, and from the first teaser, we had a full year to think about it.

By this time, I had watched all six 'Star Wars' films enough times that I never felt like I needed any sort of refresher going into this. I had officially confirmes that 'Star Wars' was basically something where, in all cases, I'd be able to find some sort of enjoyment out of it. Even 'Phantom Menace' and 'Attack of the Clones' had become guilty pleasures. Basically, there was no way I'd be disappointed.

I'm pleased to say that 'Force Awakens' actually fully delivered, at least speaking for myself. This is one of those movies where its weakness of being a full repeat of 'New Hope' also became its greatest strength. Most fans I know were disappointed with the Prequel Trilogy as a whole, and one of the big deals was that a lot of it didn't feel like genuine 'Star Wars' anymore. To this day, I really think Abrams made that repeat move on purpose, as part of the fan service that this film is absolutely littered with. It didn't work for everyone, but it definitely worked on me.

Taking place 30 years after the events of 'Jedi', Luke Skywalker has disappeared which causes the First Order to rise from the ashes of the Empire, led by Kylo Ren (Adam Driver). Ren, and an army of Stormtroopers head to the desert planet of Jakku to intercept a map that would lead to Skywalker, which has been hidden in a droid named BB-8 (Bill Hader- voice) by ace Resistance pilot, Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac). While BB-8 escapes with the map, Poe isn't so lucky. He is captured, and dragged on board Ren's ship for torturing purposes.

In the midst of everything, a First Order Trooper, FN-2187, later known as Finn (John Boyega) has a traumatic experience, and has second thoughts about remaining in the First Order. Eventually, his path crosses with Poe's, and the pair escape, crash-landing on Jakku. While Poe disappears, Finn finds himself heading on a new path when his crosses with Rey (Daisy Ridley), a lonely scavenger who has alternately crossed paths with BB-8, who the First Order knows has the map. Soon enough, the trio find themselves on the run, hijacking one of 'Star Wars' best known characters, The Millennium Falcon.

As the film unfolds, we learn a bit more about our characters and their various relationships, particularly the relationship between Han Solo and Kylo Ren. All the while, it's punctuated by nostalgic fan service that some may find oversaturating. Between the Falcon, Han, Chewy and the fact that it's essentially a 'New Hope' remake, other characters pop up as well; namely Leia (Carrie Fisher), and the two must-have droids, C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) and R2-D2, who is no longer portrayed by anyone, let alone Kenny Baker. On a quick personal note, R2 was always a personal favorite next to Yoda, but this Sequel Trilogy really gives him the shaft. For this one, he's more or less shut down due to Luke's disappearance, but thankfully he plays a role of importance in the end.

This one also came along when the idea of Easter eggs really took off, so there's actually plenty of stuff to look out for. For example, hardcore fans might recognize the number FN-2187 (Finn) matching Leia's cell block 2187 in 'New Hope'. For the less hardcore, Obi-Wan's and Yoda's voices can faintly be heard during the "Rey's vision" scene. For geeks of other sorts; Simon Pegg who also appears in Abrams' 'Star Trek' films plays junk dealer, Unkar Plutt; Greg Grunberg of 'Heroes' fame plays Resistance Pilot, Snap Wexley; singer Billie Lourd plays Resistance Lieutenant Connix; James Bond, himself, Daniel Craig plays a mind-tricked Stormtrooper, the list goes on.

Perhaps most notably among the new cast of mains include Gwendoline Christie of 'Game of Thrones' fame as Captain Phasma - a strict Stormtrooper leader, and Andy Serkis of 'Lord of the Rings' fame as Supreme Leader Snoke - a powerful Sith lord who trains Kylo Ren in the ways of the dark side, and pretty much runs the First Order. Yeah, he's the new Emperor... but more on that later. I also mustn't forget a character who I really enjoyed in this, Maz Kanata played by Lupita Nyong'o, now of 'Black Panther' fame, but was best known at the time for '12 Years a Slave'. She's kinda like this wise, fun grandmother type. Almost a new Yoda, but not quite on par with the Green Master.

Quite honestly, I liked it then and I like it now. Of the Sequel Trilogy, it's easily the best of them. Having re-watched it for the first time in a few years, it still had a similar effect on me. But this time around I found myself wishing that we could hit rewind on everything that followed, and redo it. The following reviews on 'Last Jedi' and 'Rise of Skywalker' are bound to be interesting ones, because I have a real love hate relationship with 'Last Jedi', and 'Rise of Skywalker' actually kinda broke me... but those are coming soon. The ending of this one would still give me goosebumps, if it weren't for an extremely bold move the next one pulls.

4/5

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