So I finally saw “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” or “Star Wars Episode VII,” about a week after the whole world saw it during its opening weekend. I was able to avoid almost all of the potential spoilers, except one, but I had kind of already guessed the big one before I even saw it (those of you who have seen it will more than likely know what I’m what referring to.)

Here’s my review of the film, and I’ll warn before I get into any spoilery stuff.

Overall, I really enjoyed the film. It was fun, fast but well-paced, and entertaining.

The new characters were all interesting and well-developed, even if you didn’t like them, and the old characters filled in the same roles and personalities that they had occupied before, which can be seen as disappointing, since 30 years has passed and these characters literally talk and act exactly the same way, but at the same time, I feel like the fans (myself included) would have been disappointed if the characters had been massively different in this new installment.

The music was great, as always; John Williams hardly ever disappoints.

The choreography of the ground fight scenes was all very cool, with the lightsaber battle being particularly refreshing with the lack of CGI used in those scenes. The actual fighting was all so well done that it felt a lot closer to the original series that didn’t have flashy fighting. While the battles like Mustafar in "Episode III" and the weird light pillar place in "Episode I" were cool, it was nice to just have two people fighting without all the flipping and shaky cam.

And by far, the best thing about this film was the scripting improvement. Sans a couple of clunky expositional conversations between Han and Leia, the characters all felt real and the dialogue felt natural, something that was seriously lacking in much of the prequel films. Also, it was legitimately funny at times, something that felt forced or awkward much of the time in the prequels. This was helped by the fact that the ensemble cast was directed and acted very well.

Conclusively, this spoiler-free review probably won’t sway you either way; either you have already seen it, are planning on seeing it, or have already decided you won’t see it, regardless of my opinion.

Here’s where the spoiler talk begins, so if you don’t want to be spoiled, don’t read any further.

OK, three, two, one:

Probably the biggest triumph of the film was its marketing, which revealed so little of the plot that I didn’t feel like I knew what was going to happen and was surprised at certain points. The trailers sold it hard that Finn was going to be the main character, and to have Rey end up being the Jedi, and therefore main, character was really cool and a great surprise that was thankfully not spoiled for me prior to seeing the film.

I read a comment after I saw the film that criticized the premature unmasking of Kylo Ren, something that I personally didn’t have a problem with, but I could see why some people would have a problem with it. Additionally, I thought the choice of Adam Driver was odd initially, but I feel like he was an excellent choice for the character they are trying to present. He’s not a totally awesome Dark Side bad guy like Darth Vader; he’s a kid who has more power than he knows what to do with. This storyline has the potential to prequel-Anakin itself, so I hope that the writing and acting of Driver continue to exceed.

The only thing with Kylo Ren that kind of bothered me was in the final fight scene, when he kept hitting himself in the side to make himself bleed more. I understand it was probably the pain leads to yadda yadda leads to Dark Side, and it probably made him stronger, but it looked kind of awkward in the middle of a fight. I mean, Finn didn’t end up fighting Kylo for very long, but still. I don’t know; maybe someone can explain that better to me.

If you could not guess, the spoiler I was referring to at the beginning was the beloved Han Solo and his untimely demise. Although, honestly, even if I didn’t have it spoiled, the scene setup was kind of obvious. I mean, what was Kylo Ren even doing on that platform above the giant hole anyway? Where was he going? Why did he have to go through Precinct 47 when the Resistance was shooting at it? The space station was an entire planet; it seems like it wouldn’t be hard to just walk through a different section. Maybe I missed some explanation, or maybe Kylo Ren wanted to be there because he sensed Han Solo was there, but overall, it seemed like it was set up just to have a big death scene.

Also, why did Snoke just kind of brush over the fact that Kylo Ren was Han Solo’s son? I understand it is a parallel to when the Emperor says that Luke is Anakin Skywalker’s son, but at that time, the audience doesn’t know Vader is Anakin yet. And after that, the movie beat you over the head with it when Han and Leia were talking, so why was it such a side thing early on? It just made the pacing of that progress seem kind of odd, despite the fact that it was my favorite reveal in the film.

Anyway, my minor issues aside, this was a really good movie, in my opinion, and I will definitely be seeing it again and will be looking forward to the sequels coming out in the future.

But what did you think?

Let me know what you liked in the comments, but please be mindful that some people are even slower at seeing films than me, and at least mark if you post spoilers.

Also, check out YourMovieSucks' and CinemaSins' reviews of the film (WARNING: contain some adult language)

Thank you for reading!