Good news for fans everywhere: It was good. I would even say great.
The hype and general excitement for this movie cannot be understated. The Star Wars franchise is beloved across multiple generations. This was obvious when my dad woke me up for the movie this morning at 9 a.m. by barging into my room saying loudly, “Wake up my young padawan, are you ready for the Force to be awakened?”
In "The Force Awakens," a new evil has arisen in the Republic – the First Order, headed by the Supreme Leader and his right-hand man Kylo Ren. The Resistance, led by General Leia Organa, is fighting their advances. However, both the Resistance and the First Order are in a race to find Luke Skywalker, who has mysteriously disappeared. The map to Luke has fallen into the hands of the droid BB-8 and two fugitives – Finn, an ex-Storm Trooper trying to get away from the First Order, and Rey, a young woman from a small desert planet. With the help of some familiar characters, Han Solo and Chewbacca, they attempt to help the Resistance get the intelligence first and destroy the weapon of mass destruction the First Order has created.
First of all, the only thing wanting in the movie was that the storyline was somewhat lacking in originality. The same old archetypes and story elements resurfaced in this movie. The Resistance is fighting an evil, Dark Side of the Force-driven order. There is a villain who has been turned to the Dark Side of the Force and wears a menacing mask. You have the character whose parentage is unknown and who's an excellent, naturally talented pilot. There was a fight sequence in a desert planet. And now three of seven movies have ended with a Death Star or something similar being blown up.
However, given the unoriginality, there was still a lot of good about the movie. And some would even argue that the unoriginality of the plot of Star Wars is part of the charm. Daisy Ridley and John Boyega, who play Ray and Finn respectively, were excellent in their roles. Additionally, the movie brought a lot of surprising dry humor that brought smiles and small chuckles. It was also a great mix of old and new characters. They satisfied the fandom by incorporating the old favorites like Leia, Han Solo and Chewy. However, the film did a good job of developing the new characters such as Ray, Finn and Po.
Also, the filming and directing should be applauded. J.J. Abrams did a good job of utilizing classic filming techniques and not relying too heavily on modern CGI effects. After the creation of Episodes I, II and III, which heavily used CGI effects to create scenes and characters such as the infamous Jar Jar Binks, fans were very critical. Abrams apparently tried to avoid using CGI in the new movie as much as possible.
Overall, the movie was entertaining and stayed true (as far as I can tell) to the "Star Wars" world. It’s a must see for any fan of the franchise.
