I think it’s important to say that “Star Wars” has never been important to me as a movie watcher. I like those of the original trilogy reasonably well, but I never had a toy light saber or dreamt about what it would be like to walk the sands of Tatooine. You have to be of a certain age to watch those films to become fully enamored.

But, what J.J. Abrams did with “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” was an Everest of a mountain to climb in order to satisfy all the fans and casual viewers out there. Abrams has always been a diehard "Star Wars" fan (as is evident in his “Star Trek” films). Because his love for the material permeates through the screen, the first 40 minutes of the newest installment is as close to perfect as any other film could get.

In these first 40 minutes, Abrams allowed himself to luxuriate in the rich galaxy created by George Lucas. He glides through the sandy desert hills of Jakku like David Lean did with “Lawrence of Arabia” over fifty years ago. As a viewer, you experience the world, the scale and the scope of it. Abrams blends practical effects and real world sets with CGI, the way computer generated images should be used for. The CGI supplements the real world effects to create weight and realism instead of something that looks purely animated.

It is here the new slate of characters is introduced in the New Saga. There is Rey (Daisy Ridley), a scoundrel on the planet of Jakku, who, like Luke Skywalker, pines for something more amongst the stars. Finn (John Boyega) is an ex-Stormtrooper renouncing his allegiance to The First Order, due to the slaughter that the regime creates, the even more explicit Nazi parallel that has taken the mantle of The Empire since its fall. Then there is Poe Dameron, the best X-Wing pilot in the Rebellion, whose cool and collective persona is bolstered by the charisma of Oscar Isaac. The new characters feel organic to the story and a welcome addition alongside the old ones that come back. That is especially the case for BB-8, a new droid that could have fallen dangerously close to Jar Jar Binks style, children pandering. But, the filmmakers gives him an emotional complexity that has not been seen in a robot character since Wall-E, which is why BB-8 is definitely going to be the break out character of the series.

It is hard not to compare the film to the original trilogy and that’s partially because so much of the film feels reactionary to “New Hope” which is both beneficial and hindering at some points. Rey is now the hero in the Joseph Campbell, “Hero’s Journey” template, that we are following and I would say that she is a more compelling character than the original Luke Skywalker. She subverts the tropes set into place by “New Hope”. Finn is the damsel in distress and that does not feel like a film adding feminine tropes for the sake of feminism but something that is organic to the action of the characters. The Jakku sequence works well especially because it feels like a remix of the original film, mirroring actions and story beats. But, through its references and motifs they make a “Star Wars” for the new generation of people rather than pandering to the old.

Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), the main villain also serves to be a new generation of bad guy. He lives in the shadow of the Sith Lords that have come before him and this influences the makeup of the character. It’s hard not see him as representation of the millennial in terms of the internal struggles Kylo Ren faces. Maybe that’s due to the fact that he is played by Adam Driver, whose previous roles have served as commentary on the state of the millennial milieu. But, Kylo Ren, who has already become divisive in portrayal, is definitely struggling with his own Paradox of Choice. Yet, it is refreshing to see the main villain not all powerful and nuanced by a series of indecision.

The reason I am harping on the perfection of the first 40 minutes of the film is because I think it is a genuine work of beauty and cinema. By the time, the original characters reappear Abrams begins abandoning what made it so great. He no longer takes his time to build the world around him. The film’s version of the Mos Eisley Cantina scene is the perfect example of this. The camera jumps from one creature to the next but never lets the audience appreciate the craft that went into making. The action becomes frenetic and hectic without any of the excitement that should come with it. In one sequence involving a rebel fight with the First Order, suddenly the scope of the setting becomes small in a dissatisfying way. There it felt like these soldiers were a part of a set rather than an expansive world. These are the faults of JJ Abrams as a director who at his worst boggles at handling too much action happening at one time.

That does not take away from how much fun “Star War: The Force Awakens” is though. These grandiose cultural touchstones like “The Avengers” of “The Hobbit” seemed to forget about the fun in their movies. Here we are given a universe that fees full relying on the weaving of the past and present without ever feeling pandering to fans of the past. This is an immensely satisfying film thanks to the soul that has been imbued in it. By the time the credits rolled I was happy that I was transported to a long time ago in a galaxy far far away.

4 Lightsabers out of 5