Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens Review

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens Review

We’ve made it past the original and prequel trilogy, and now we make it to one of the more interesting eras of Star Wars, the Disney Star Wars era. We’re kicking that off by talking about The Force Awakens. One of the most interesting blockbusters of the last 15 years. There was so much excitement and anticipation going into this movie, it was the first Star Wars film in 10 years. It came out, got great reviews, and made $2 billion at the box office. Since then, the movie’s reputation has gone down drastically because of the sequels. What do I think about this movie? Do I like it? Let’s talk about it!

The Good

I’ll cut right to the chase, I do really enjoy The Force Awakens. I think The Force Awakens is easily the best film from the Disney era of Star Wars, and it’s a top tier Star Wars movie for me. What I really like about this movie is I think this is the most fun Star Wars movie. I don’t think it’s the most well made Star Wars movie, but it’s just a lot of fun. From beginning to end, it’s non-stop entertainment with tons of action, likable characters, and when there’s not something exciting happening there’s a joke happening. It’s never a big large gap between action set pieces. I know the intent is to crap on JJ Abrams for The Rise of Skywalker. We’ll talk about that movie in a few weeks. But one of the things that I’ve always loved about him is that he makes really entertaining films. He knows how to make engaging films that have plenty of action and humor to keep you engaged from beginning to end. I think Star Trek (2009) is still his best film, but The Force Awakens isn’t too far behind. The film starts off with this attack on Jakku where you get some lightsabers and Stormtroopers. But during the sequence it establishes our villain and the main plot device from the movie. We’re then introduced to Rey. We get a break out with Poe and Finn that leads into Finn and Rey meeting which leads into a chase scene. The movie keeps on going at this brisk pace. It never lets up until the credits roll. Sure, fault JJ Abrams for some things as a director but I don’t think you can fault him for being a director that makes incredibly entertaining films. 

Another thing that I really like about this movie is the set of characters. I know that the internet loves to tear these people apart. For me, I’ve always enjoyed the mix of the legacy characters with the new characters. It’s of course great to see Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill back in these roles after years of not seeing them. Even though we don’t get a lot of Hamill in this movie, it’s literally just seconds you’re still happy that you get to see him again. I don’t know how unpopular of a take this is, but this might be the best usage of Han Solo in any Star Wars film. It’s certainly the one that carries the most emotional weight. You get the completion of his character arc where he was a denier of the force in A New Hope and in this film he’s telling Rey and Finn that the force is real and to believe in it. He’s still the same character at heart with being this smug guy that’s easily annoyed. Despite being in his 70s, Ford is able to bring this movie star energy to the role and bring this gravitas to this movie. As for the new characters I think they’re all fun and good characters, maybe they’re not the most original characters but I still like them. One of the things that I always like about this movie is the bromance between Finn and Poe. John Boyega and Oscar Isaac have this great dynamic and especially during their escape at the beginning, it’s just a really fun banter and chemistry. I wish we got more of it in the sequels, given the.plot of those films it doesn’t really give them that opportunity. I also really like Daisy Ridley and Rey as a character here. I recently saw We Bury the Dead that also stars Daisy Ridley. I don’t know if the Star Wars fan base burnt her out, but I think she’s a movie star. She’s a really good actress and can bring all of the right energy to lead a movie like this. She is similar to Luke in a lot of ways, but there’s also just a lot of differences. I think she’s the one character in the sequel trilogy that got a proper character arc and growth. I think the directions they took Finn and Poe weren’t the best. One small thing related to the cast is that some of the smaller supporting characters are played by fun actors. If you didn’t know, Simon Pegg plays Unkar Pluto, Rey’s boss on Jakku. Daniel Craig is the Stormtrooper that Rey mind controls to escape later on in the film. It’s not a big positive, but I do kind of enjoy that about the film. 

One thing that really stood out to me about the film was that it felt more practical and real. What I mean by that is infamously George Lucas shot the prequels on a lot of blue screens with not real sets. If you’ve seen interviews with Ewan McGregor he’s talked about how there were less and less sets and more and more blue screens as they shot the films. You watch this movie and with every action scene and every location that’s visited it feels real. It makes the Star Wars world feel bigger when you see more of what’s going on and there’s more detail. When we’re on Jakku it feels like the cast and crew were actually in a desert filming this stuff. Of course they added CGI to the creatures and some things here and there but in general it feels more practical and lived in. Even when we go to Maz Kanata’s place in the middle of the film, the whole planet is so vibrant and colorful. I remember seeing this movie on the big screen and when we first arrived there that whole theater was just in awe of the beauty of the planet. Despite the prequels having some cool looking planets, they lack the beauty that this film does because the sets feel more practical and real. When the First Order invades and you get this all battle at Maz Kanata’s and you get all of this stuff happening it has this scope and size to it that the prequels lacked. It’s such a small thing that shouldn’t add much to a film, but rewatching these Star Wars films it’s something that really stood out to me. 

This is an interesting film in movies because it was sort of the original legacy sequel. Legacy sequels of bringing back past characters and mixing them with a new generation of characters has become more common. The Force Awakens was sort of the original film that started all of that. What this film does is that it evokes a sense of nostalgia from the audience. More so then I think other legacy sequels do. One of the big criticisms of the film is that it feels familiar and it has the same plot structure as A New Hope. I don’t mind that about the film, I view that as the big thing that gives this film a sense of nostalgia. Where there’s scenes that remind you of A New Hope whether that’s our new Jedi being on a desert planet or the concept of the First Order. But that’s why I think the film has so much nostalgia to it, is that it reminds you of the good ol’ days of Star Wars. It doesn’t remind of the faults of the prequels, where George Lucas tried to do a lot of things differently. This movie plays it safe and I like that. Not every sequel needs to do something that reinvents the franchise or anything like that. It’s ok if a movie does what worked before. At the time, I think it was able to get away with following the formula and reminding the audience of the past because it is what Star Wars needed. There was a whole generation of people that thought the prequels were massive disappointments, and this film reunited the Star Wars fandom. I like that the film evokes big nostalgic emotions. 

As this is a Star Wars film you have to talk about the score. John Williams has done a lot of great Star Wars scores. I’ve talked about them in almost all of these reviews. The score was a lot better than I remember it being. I believe I said in my Revenge of the Sith review that that was the last great Star Wars score. I think I’ll retract that statement and I think that The Force Awakens is another great score. You of course get all of the classic melodies that you expect and want in a Star Wars film, but you also get some new melodies that I like. In particular with the themes for the Resistance and Rey I think are catchy melodies that fit the tone and vibe of the movie. I don’t think The Force Awakens adds any melodies that are top tier Star Wars like “The Imperial March” or “Duel of the Fates”, but that doesn’t make the melodies or the score bad at all. 

Finally, this film does a good job of creating intrigue and mystery for what’s going on. We’ll talk about this more in a second. One of the things JJ Abrams does a good job of with his projects is the mystery box. Where he sets up this series of things to unravel this mystery box and in the mystery box is the answer. This movie lays the groundwork for a lot of mystery surrounding everything. You’re curious about who Rey is and how she knows the force. You’re curious about why Luke is on an island alone after Return of the Jedi. You’re curious about Snoke and the First Order and what’s going on with them. The film makes you curious and wonder about all of these things. 

The Bad

With this movie there’s a certain level of disappointment that comes from rewatching this movie. Since we know the end of this story and where everything goes and it not being the best answers, it diminishes some of the impact of this film. The trilogy does a great job of building the intrigue and mystery but it doesn’t do a great job of paying them off. That’s not a fault with this movie, it’s not something that The Force Awakens gets wrong, but I think it does hold the movie back. I think The Force Awakens is a great example of a film’s legacy being tarnished by the sequels. This movie was much better received before we got The Rise of Skywalker and since then the film’s reputation has gone down because The Rise of Skywalker fumbled the ball so badly and we see all of the faults with this trilogy and the messiness and unfocused nature of it, that rewatching The Force Awakens means that we know where all of this going and that it’s ultimately disappointing. This movie establishes a great new character with Finn. They had this interesting new idea of a character about a Stormtrooper turning good and helping the Resistance defeat the First Order is a great idea. This could’ve led to a great character arc for Finn and have him be this symbol of hope. After he gets injured in the third act of the trilogy, he does nothing memorable in the rest of the trilogy. It’s hard to get invested into Finn’s arc in this I film when you know it doesn’t go anywhere meaningful in Last Jedi or even Rise of Skywalker. 

The other thing here is besides Kylo Ren, I’ve never found the villains to be super compelling. This does tie back to this previous idea of everything interesting established in this film being paid off in an unsatisfying way. But even in this movie, without the knowledge of the later films. I don’t think General Hux or Snoke are super compelling. Domhnall Gleeson is a good actor but he doesn’t give off the vibe of this evil general over this evil government in the world of Star Wars. He comes across as this character who got put in charge by his dad but hasn’t matured to be a general. He feels way over his head. The big speech that he gives the Stormtroopers before they blow up a planet should be like this really big and powerful moment that makes the audience go oh crap and fear the First Order. Gleeson isn’t able to be menacing as a villain. I don’t even mind that Snoke isn’t elaborated on in this movie, they needed to save some answers for the sequels but I wish we got more here. I wish we understood a little bit more about who Snoke is. 

Final Thoughts: In general, I really like The Force Awakens. That is still a top tier and very entertaining Star Wars movie. From beginning to end, the film is able to be entertaining whether it’s with fun characters, humor, or action. It might be a super safe Star Wars movie, but that doesn’t make it bad. I get why people can be disappointed with this movie after the disappointment of the sequels, but the people that call this movie bad and one of the worst Star Wars movies I think are hating on this movie too much. 

The Score: 8.9/10 (B+)