Enthralling, Entertaining and Gorgeous, The Force Awakens brought back everything we loved about star wars

By: Keaton Marcus

Around half a decade ago, the entire world was in desperate anticipation for one of the most hyped movies of all-time, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which promised to inject the franchise with new characters while bringing back a couple of classic ones. Despite both critics and audiences praising this as the grand return for the saga in 2015, the trilogy went on to be one of the most divisive topics in cinema, especially after it ended with The Rise of Skywalker at the end of last year. However, no matter what your thoughts are on the three films as a whole, the first, which I shall be reviewing today, truly brought back the energy and life after George Lucas’ disastrous prequels. This is a visually gorgeous, action-packed, fast-paced and entertaining movie with interesting, intriguing new characters with promising starts. Of course, it relies on heavy nostalgia to get the fans back in the game, and audiences can’t help but draw comparisons between this and A New Hope, but in terms of enjoyment and spirit, I was enthralled watching it in IMAX five years ago, and re-watching it on simply a computer recently.

In the first 15 minutes, JJ Abrams cleverly introduces several main characters without wasting any time, because remember, the man directs rollercoasters, not contemplative slow burns. For better, or for worse. The most important one we meet is Rey, a resourceful scavenger living on the planet Jakku. She eventually runs in to Finn (John Boyega), a former stormtrooper from The First Order, which is a new Empire of sorts. He decides to leave that organization because of his refusal to kill for evil, and then meets Rey on Jakku. The two start an adventure together that leads them to Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca on the iconic Millenium Falcon. While this is happening there’s also a new villain on the rise who has taken great inspiration from Darth Vader, and his name is Kylo Ren. He is basically second-in-command of the First Order under Emporer Snoke (Andy Serkis), who plays a Palpatine-type part in the movie. Unfortunately, Snoke was one of my least favorite aspects of this film, but more of that later.

Pretend that we are all back in 2015 right after seeing The Force Awakens. In the six Star Wars films that had come out, I had only really loved two: A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back despite enjoying watching all of them. Well, it just became three. Now back to the present and I still absolutely adore this movie, from the fantastic use of practical effects to the refreshing blend of new and classic characters and the relentlessly fast-paced direction. I do have a few issues with the film too, so it’s not all rainbows and butterflies, but it’s shocking how nearly flawless it is with the expectations being through the roof. First of all we have never seen a defected stormtrooper before, which makes Finn a creative and promising characters. Second of all, I am invested in the other ones. Poe Dameron, portrayed by Oscar Isaac, oozes cool with the actor’s Harrison Ford-like charisma that brings me back to the glory days of the franchise. Daisy Ridley is fierce and committed as Rey, stealing the entire show in my opinion She’s also a character that makes audiences want to know more for future films, giving her an ambiguous backstory full of deep-dive potential. Kylo Ren is an utter badass. Scary, evil and intimidating while also motivated, we understand the point of all his actions…To live up to Darth Vader. Don’t worry, I’m not forgetting about the icons, either! The chemistry between Han Solo and Chewbacca is completely there, and Harrison Ford brings back the goods in a more mature Solo. His scenes with Princess Leia brought tears to my eyes and joy to the heart, but they were also tinged with a sense of remorse and regret for the past that I truly felt.

Not only is this a terrific Star Wars film, but it’s also one of the most entertaining movies I’ve ever seen. JJ Abrams gave this film real action sequences, engaging characters, true performances, and deft filmmaking craft…All things that we hadn’t seen in a Star Wars movie since the originals. The Force Awakens is invigorating to witness, jam-packed with story and action that never seems to bore. Another thing that George Lucas seemed to forget for his trilogy was humor! This film is absolutely brimming with jokes that legitimately land! Seriously, some scenes are laugh-out-loud funny which are seamlessly infused and blended with the exciting battle sequences without feeling out-of-place or too modern for the universe. As I’ve mentioned briefly several times, on a technical level, the movie is an utter masterpiece. Hearing John Williams’ resounding and magical musical cues coupled with Dan Mindel’s killer cinematography makes for a feast for both the eyes and ears. Unexpectedly, we also get a surprising amount of breathing room with slower moments that bring more depth to the movie as well as a little break from the chaos. However, the plot is always moving, the wheels never stop turning, and I greatly respect when a film goes there. This is rollercoaster directing done right, and for that reason, I was always at the edge of my seat, unlike the boring, remarkably mediocre prequels burdened with superfluous characters, exposition and an unbearable amount of space politics that nobody wanted. The nostalgia is handled in more of a loving way than a derivative one, and despite the fear that the callbacks would be too overbearing, I felt the homages worked towards the film’s benefit.

Now to get into some of the issues I have with this movie. Kicking things off were the two motion-capture characters: Snoke and Maz Kanata (Lupita Nyong’o). Not only do they fail to influence the plot enough, but the CGI was also disappointingly mediocre. Kanata was in a few moments, but her entire character was glossed over and the VFX looked subpar. Similarly with Snoke, his artificiality unfortunately stands out in a bad way amongst all the realism and practical effects in the film. Both of them do, and it’s disappointing that Abrams didn’t make more use of them. The second big flaw came with Star Killer Base, which felt too similar and in the vein of A New Hope’s Death Star. The film blandly resorted to the planet-killing plot, and it reminded me of when Return of the Jedi used a second Death Star. It felt generic and derivative, almost unnecessary. Don’t get me wrong, the look of the base is cool and all, but I didn’t need it. Other than that, The Force Awakens successfully revitalizes everything we loved about the originals and blends them with refreshing new characters in a mash of hilarious humor, gorgeous action and authentic direction with small problems along the way.