I walked out of the theater after watching "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" with a whirlwind of emotion. Part of me was still trying to take in all of the new gadgets and characters, while the other part was feeling slightly disappointed yet blown away all in one.
First of all, I am an absolute die hard "Star Wars" fan, and it would have taken an incredible movie to blow me away. I am the same kid who stood outside of Walmart at 6 a.m. to make sure I got all the newest action figures when "Revenge of the Sith" came out and the same kid who went to the midnight premier for both Episode II and III. But it feels like everyone lowered their expectations and standards just because they were happy to see a new "Star Wars" film. I have two major critiques on the film: the plot seems repetitive, and it seemed like the writers were trying too hard.
I could sit here all day and write about how there are about a bazillion similarities between this plot and the original trilogy plots. Wait, you mean the bad guy turns out to be related to the main characters, who are good guys? No way! Wow, writers, you really dug deep to come up with that one. And wait, you mean there is yet ANOTHER giant space station with a susceptibility to getting blown up? And just because you give the giant space station the ability to blow up four things at once instead of just one, I'm going to find that new? No way.
Not only was the plot too repetitive, but also, the writers were trying too hard. At times, there were parts where jokes were inserted that were unneeded. At parts, I was asking myself if I watching a sci-fi movie or a comedy. It was clever and caused me to chuckle the first couple of times, but then I felt that they were going to the well too many times.
I was sitting there in the theater, thinking to myself “Oh my god, this is so disappointing” until the final 15 minutes occurred, which ended up saving the whole movie for me. When Han Solo confronts his son, Kylo Ren, and tries to bring him back to the light, the suspense was exhilarating. And just as Kylo Ren looks like he has a change of heart, he pierces his own father right through the chest with his light sabre. It was shocking and jaw-dropping to watch what was easily the saddest death out of any of the "Star Wars" films.
Then to follow that up with an epic lightsaber duel that we were all hoping for between Kylo Ren and Rey was just one epic moment after another. And then to leave it with both of them escaping alive to leave the door open for yet another duel is an exciting thing to look forward to. And then to finally leave the cliffhanger we were all expecting with Rey traveling and finding Luke and the moment of her handing him his lightsaber was entirely epic in itself.
The final 15 minutes saved the entire movie, hooked me in, and has me hyped for the next one. If I were to give a grade for the movie based on everything but the last 15 minutes, I would give it a C, but the final 15 minutes get an A+, and the writers did an excellent job making up for the bland start to the movie by ending with a couple epic moments and a cliffhanger that left everyone excited for the next episode in the new trilogy.
