What a way to end the year, with one of the most beloved franchises of all time coming back for a new generation! And with all the hype and all the excitement and merchandise and everything, does Star Wars: The Force Awakens live up to what we all expected?
If you ask me, this film did everything that I wanted it to do. It was all what I wanted it to be and even surpassed it! It is without a doubt better than any prequel could have ever hoped to be, and is the best Star Wars movie to be made since 1983. I had to take a few hours to let the gravity of this film sink in and collect my thoughts about it. It truly is one of the greatest movies to come out in 2015.
This review will be absolutely spoiler free. The trailers didn’t give away any story whatsoever, so I won’t either.
The Force Awakens is the latest installment in the Star Wars franchise and starts many years after Return of the Jedi. The film follows the characters Finn, played by John Boyega, and Rey, played by Daisy Ridley. Of course there are many familiar faces, like Harrison Ford coming back as Han Solo, and Carrie Fisher as Leia. There’s R2D2, C-3PO, Chewbacca, and Luke Skywalker, with Mark Hamill returning in the role. There’s been a lot of fans questioning if Luke was in the movie at all. He is… and that’s all I’ll say.
If ever there was a new cast of characters to continue the Star Wars storyline after Episode 6, these would be it. Finn and Rey are fun, well acted, and well written characters that you actually care about. And it’s been a long time since the audience has been able to genuinely root for a character. Nobody cared about Qui-Gon Jinn, nobody wanted to see Anakin win the day, nobody wanted Jar Jar to exist. Finn and Rey are the best possible characters to pass the torch to. Daisy Ridley and John Boyega do a great job as those characters, and I hope that their careers skyrocket after this. They’re two unknowns coming into a franchise as big as Star Wars, and after both the high box office numbers and the reception of the film by fans and critics, I can only see their careers going up from here. Remember the kid who played young Anakin in The Phantom Menace? He hasn’t been seen in anything since 2005. Check his IMDb page.
Other than Finn and Rey, one of the coolest new characters is Po Dameron, played by Oscar Isaac. Honestly, I wish he was in the movie for longer than he was. He’s such a charismatic and fun guy that I wanted to see more of. Another character that wasn’t in the movie for as much as I thought she would be was Captain Phasma. She was barely in it, and she didn’t do much. Maybe there’s going to be an extended edition of this when it comes out on Blu-Ray that shows more of her and Po, but as it stands I really didn’t see the point of her being in the movie. She looked cool, but didn’t do enough to be a menacing villain.
On the subject of villains… Kylo Ren.
This guy is probably one of the better villains of 2015, and one of the better villains in the Star Wars universe. He looks awesome, he sounds awesome, and his cross-hilt lightsaber was purely awesome. But other than being outwardly awesome, he’s motivated. I won’t give anything away, but when you see what this character’s story is, and what he’s done and what his mindset is, you really see his motivation. You understand his dilemma. You may be disappointed at face value at one point, but when you think about it, you get why he was such a well done antagonist in this film.
Overall, I absolutely loved each of the characters, both old and new. The older characters like Han Solo and Leia aren’t the same as they were all those years ago in the original trilogy. The characters have evolved in the time we haven’t seen them. They’ve changed, but they’re definitely familiar. The way the changes were done was perfect.
Without giving anything away, I would like to comment on the general plot to the film. There are certain plot points that are very reminiscent of the original film. These plot points almost line up perfectly, but it’s not cheap or weakly executed. It’s done very well and makes the movie seem that much closer to what Star Wars should feel like, and presents it in a fun and exciting way. That’s the big point that The Force Awakens hits right on the head- it feels like Star Wars. The Phantom Menace didn’t feel like Star Wars. Attack of the Clones didn’t feel like Star Wars. Revenge of the Sith to its credit got VERY close, but it did not score. Episode 7 feels like Star Wars because it IS Star Wars. It’s got the charisma, the imagination, the right type of story, and the lovable characters that we were all enthralled by in the original trilogy… but it’s all new!
There are two more vital points that I have to give The Force Awakens full credit for: the special effects and the comedy.
The comedy is done exceptionally well. The entire theater I was in was cracking up at the humorous parts that the movie does so perfectly. Even the original trilogy didn’t have this much humor. Don’t mistake it for me saying that it’s full of laughs at every turn, because there are more than a few moments that my heart was pounding and I squealed like a little girl at because of the emotional impact. It gets serious when it needs to and has humor when it’s appropriate. It’s the perfect balance that we as audiences deserve, and it’s not stupid poop jokes ike in The Phantom Menace. There’s no Jar Jar Binks and his bumbling around. The funniest and cutest character in the entire film that was intended to be funny and cute (much like Jar Jar was) is BB-8.
This little rolly-ball droid was adorable! And he wasn’t CGI! They actually built that thing and had the actors interacting with it! And that’s not the only thing that was actually in front of the camera- there are a LOT of practical effects in this film! Makeup, puppets, animatronics, life sized props, real sets, real locations, some real explosions, and CGI only when necessary! And the CGI that was used was used for the spaceships, planets, flying sequences, some environments, and only two motion capture performances. The rest was all in front of a camera! It was so refreshing to see the art of practical effects return to filmmaking to the extent it was done in The Force Awakens. I love practical effects as much as I love CGI, but I love the fact that the filmmakers only did CGI when it was needed! It made the action so much better! The lightsabers look better than ever, too. So do the lightsaber duels! It’s not flashy or super choreographed, it’s a duel. A real, gritty fight for survival! It looks and feels like a genuine fight! I’d even say it’s better than the original trilogy’s duels!
It was noticeable when the motion capture performances were on screen, but one of them was 99.9% photorealistic. That character was so close to being THERE, and for a few parts, I actually forgot it was CGI. I’d say that character is the best motion capture performance since Gollum. It was THAT good! The other was a bit more obvious, though, but it still looked nice.
I cannot respect J.J. Abrams enough for going the more practical route. He put the ‘special’ back into ‘special effects’. I hope other filmmakers take note of what was accomplished here and try their part to bring balance to the force of special effects. Not too much overused CGI, but not overly reliant on practicals either. We will find the balance between these techniques again, like Jurassic Park once did, and The Force Awakens is the starting point to it all. I guarantee it.
In conclusion, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a great, fantastic, amazing, spectacular, stupendous, terrific experience that I absolutely adored. I loved the characters, I loved the story, I loved the special effects, I loved John Williams’ beautiful score, I loved the villain, I loved BB-8, and I loved everything about it! It’s not a flawless movie, though. No movie is, but the very few flaws it does have don’t affect how much I love it. It’s like the original 1977 film has certain flaws and plot holes, but everyone worships that. Be warned, though- the film doesn’t end with everything tied up and happy. There are loose ends and it will leave you unfulfilled and wanting, craving, begging for more… but that’s the point. It’s supposed to make us want more. It’s supposed to have us hooked and keep coming back for future movies. It’s what The Empire Strikes Back did to audiences in 1980. We just need to wait it out like they did, and maybe through our patience and not letting our fanboyism get overhyped, it’ll pay off like The Force Awakens did.
I would not hesitate to say that this is one of the best movies of 2015, as well as one of my personal favorites of 2015. And possibly one of my favorite films of all time. But that’s just me. I want you to go and see this film for yourself and see what you think about it.
I cannot wait to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens again and again and again and own it on Blu-Ray. You know I’m giving it a perfect score.
FINAL RATING: 50 / 50
STORY: 5 / 5
ACTING: 5 / 5
CHARACTERS: 5 / 5
SPECIAL EFFECTS: 5 / 5
ACTION/ADVENTURE: 5 / 5
SOUNDTRACK: 5 / 5
TONE: 5 / 5
ENJOYABILITY: 5 / 5
REWATCH VALUE: 5 / 5
OWNING VALUE: 5 / 5
This is probably the last movie I’m going to see in theaters in 2015, but I will write more reviews for other films this month. And after the year ends, on January 7th, will be the blog’s 2015 year end overview, which will include my personal favorite Top 5 Films of 2015, so be looking forward to that when the time comes.
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