Star Wars - Episode VII: The Force Awakens

Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens 

Nominated for 5 Academy Awards = Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Original Score (John Williams), Best Visual Effects
Nominated for 11 MTV Movie Awards = Best Movie, Best Female Performance (Daisy Ridley), Best Breakthrough Performances (Daisy Ridley & John Boyega), Best Ensemble Cast, Best Virtual Performances (Andy Serkis & Lupita Wyong’o), Best Hero (Daisy Ridley), Best Action Performance (John Boyega), Best Villain (Adam Driver), Best Fight (Daisy Ridley vs. Adam Driver)

 I think I’m going to get a lot of flack for this, but let me start the review by getting it off my chest: “YAHOO!! George Lucas has finally done it. He's redeemed the series back to it's former glory.”

O.K. That’s over with, back to my review.

It has been ten years since Lucas gave us “Revenge of the Sith”, a movie that was surprisingly not bad as people claimed it to be (but then again the prequel trilogy was not that well-regarded to begin with). During that time he sold the rights from Fox to Disney, passed the reins on to the talentless J.J. Abrams (I’m never forgiving him after the two botched “Star Trek” fiascos), and tried to pitch to execs his idea of how the sequel trilogy should proceed before Disney started the idea from scratch.

Let’s see where this new trilogy goes and see if it grows on its own, because as of this writing I am still giving the credit to Mr. Lucas, because this isn’t a bad start. In fact, he’s redeemed himself here.

“Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens” is set 30 years after the original trilogy, and 60 years after the prequel trilogy, in which the Resistance finds itself in a scramble after the disappearance of Luke Skywalker. During that time, the First Order (a revamped version of the Empire)  has vowed to search the galaxy and to wipe out the last remaining Jedi --- Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). X-Wing fighter/pilot Poe Doraemon (Oscar Issac) has found the missing key to the puzzle on a small desolate desert-like planet of Jakku but the First Order finds him and captures him. He sends his most trusted robot BB-8 the missing piece of intel and tells him to get away as the camp gets attacked. BB-8 runs into a girl named Rey (Daisy Ridley) and the adventure begins.

At this point, the concepts sound vaguely familiar to “A New Hope”, and even includes some subtle references. However, I believe the seventh episode stands out in its own right and veers in a much darker direction than even the original trilogy went. One of the newest characters that was an interesting concept was that of Finn (John Boyega), a stormtrooper who defects from the First Order and finds himself on the planet Jakku. Proving of value to the resistance, he is able to tell all he knows about the First Order and their new base of command: the Starkiller, which has the capability of not only wiping out planets but entire galaxies as well. Led by Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), he is seen as an in-between of Anakin before shifting into Darth Vader who wants to prove to Supreme Leader Snoke (another CGI-enhanced performance from Andy Serkis) that he is worthy of following in Darth Vader’s footsteps.

The old cast is back, and in the place of Luke we have Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher as Han Solo and Leia Organa. They serve as more of background characters than a passing of the torch at this moment, as Leia now serves as General of the Resistance when the audience sees her in the second half of the film. Han is there to teach the new characters that the legends are true: the force, the Jedi, and yes, even the Sith. Luke barely registers in there as he is absent in the majority of the film; only to pop up at the end to show that he’ll indeed be back for the next adventure.

To reveal anything more would delve into spider territory, and that’s something I promised to myself I would never do in my review, although everybody’s pretty much seen it by now by the time this review is published. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan (who also wrote the screenplays for both the fifth and sixth film/episode) do a great job incorporation references to the old films without going overboard, while trying to set a new course for the beginning of the new trilogy, as the others are currently on track for 2017 and 2019 releases.