Movie Review: Star Wars the Force Awakens
When I heard they were making another Star Wars film, I thought seriously about breaking out my Star Wars action figures and legos and reliving my childhood.
Being an avid Star Wars since I was little, hearing the news of a new Star Wars movie excited me to my very inner child. I was old enough to watch the Stars Episodes 1-3 in the early 2000’s with my father. Since then I’ve received countless Star Wars based toys and watched the movie several times over. I went and saw with, much excitement, Stars Wars The Force Awakens on Christmas Day 2015.
With many recently watching the movie, it brought new excitement and hype for all Star Wars fans, old and new, across all the world. As there is a huge majority of Star Wars nerds and fanatics.
Spoiler alert, for those who have yet to see the movie: Plot details and characters will be discussed!
Thirty years after the Galactic Empire, the Galaxy faces the new threat of Klyo Ren, the unfamiliar masked villain and the Fist Order that came from the ashes of the Empire. A defected stormtrooper deserts the First Order and helps a Resistance Pilot escape a First Order ship by means of a spacecraft. The Stormtrooper, later named Finn, and the pilot crash land on the planet Jakku. Finn, after assuming the pilot has died, eventually wanders into a local outpost on the planet. Finn runs into a scavenger girl named Rey and a droid, BB-8. Finding out that the assumed dead pilot put a top secret map on the droid before he was captured, they escape the planet from the First Order. They soon join forces with Han Solo to make sure Resistance received the map leading to Luke Skywalker, the last of the Jedi Knights.
Warning: discussion, comments and major spoilers are revealed ahead.
How did I feel about the new Star Wars flick? As a movie, it was epic. However, I have my complaints as a big Star Wars fan.
The hype was a let down. Episode seven was basically a re-loop of the original number, Star Wars: A New Hope. A droid with a secret map or message: familiar. Another Death Star weapon, but bigger, and of course, another weakness that seems impossible against the odds.
Stormtroopers, even after years of training, are still bad shots and do not know how to take cover.
The Millennium Falcon is captured and so happens to find itself on the same outpost in Jakku that Finn and Rey are at. Jakku looks a lot of Tatooine from yet another previous Star Wars movie.
Rey, a scavenger strong with the force, is understandable, but she learns the force in five minutes. Not only does she learn the Force that quickly, she also defeats the sith apprentice Kylo Ren. I mean I know she knew how to use her fancy stick, but he’s a sith with training for goodness sakes! Like five minutes of training would win that battle!
Han Solo dies by the hand of his overly emotional son turned sith. Father/son battle? Good vs Evil?Sounds a little familiar to me. Also, the fact that R2D2 “miraculously” awakes when he is needed, is beyond me.
Let’s compare episode seven to episodes one, two, and three. Those movies had a lot of animated and digitally made scenes and characters, but the battles where way more awesome and thrilling. The lightsaber battles were just awesome. The new battles could’ve used way more fighting and skill.
Now don’t get me wrong, I would definitely watch the movie again. However, this episode was an unneeded recap in the series. Any one else can just watch the originals. I understand some years have passed since episode six and that a hype method was used. It turned into a let down on progress.
The thing to keep in mind if watching this movie is that it is a revival of the franchise. I believe that we’ll see the movie become more eventful as the franchise continues to produce sequels… I hope. We can blame Disney if the series doesn’t live up to expectations.
Of course, as a die hard Star Wars fan, I’m glad Disney revised the series and that they have four or five more Star Wars movies in the works for the coming years. Hopefully, the quality and story line will continue to improve.
Please tell me your thoughts of the movie in the comments and what you expect in the coming movies. May The Force Be With You.
Loading ...Chris Henry is Senior Writer and Reporter for The Cougar Call at Ada High School. He's new to Journalism and having to to adapt to the ways of reporting...
Vaughn appleman • Jan 15, 2016 at 2:02 pm
As a Star Wars fan all my life I thought it was a great movie but I was quite upset that Han Solo died because he was a major character in the series. But the force awakens movie dos set it up quite nicely for the next movie or next two movies.