REVIEW: Star Wars: The Force Awakens

I’m giving you one last chance. If you do not want Star Wars: The Force Awakens spoilers, turn back now. I’m not holding back. I will be talking about the plot as well as some of the ending. Don’t say we didn’t warn you!

After the events of Return of the Jedi, Luke Skywalker has gone missing. Nobody knows where he is. The whole plot of the film is about our heroes decoding a map to determine his location. It’s pretty simple when you get down to the bare bones of it all. There are no boring galactic politics BS that we have to wade through; it’s simple and clean. So there’s a positive right there.

A piece of the map is hidden inside the BB-8 unit (that little ball droid that everyone has fallen in love with in the trailers). It becomes a massive game of Keep-Away as the heroes try to prevent BB-8 from falling into the hands of the First Order, a dark military coalition that has risen from the ashes of the Empire.

By the way, BB-8 is the new R2-D2. I fell in love with this little guy right away. He’s adorable and quirky with a little sass to him. There’s one scene that had me dying where he gives his interpretation of a “thumbs up”. I want a BB-8. Now.

Our main character, Finn (played by Boyega), is a former Stormtrooper who has decided that he doesn’t want to be part of the First Order after witnessing them slaughtering a peaceful village. Judging from the trailers, I figured the character would be the silent, shy type. I had no idea that he would have such a fun personality. Some of the best lines of the film come from Finn. Thankfully, the other characters aren’t overshadowed by him, and everyone gets their moment to shine.

Finn meets up with a bad-ass scavenger named Rey (played by Ridley) who wants to join the Resistance, a group fighting against the First Order. If you think that these two will spawn a romantic subplot that bogs down the whole movie, think again. Yeah, Finn tries desperately to win Rey over with his constant flirting, but she’s more interested in helping the Resistance than getting some action. I’m glad this film wasn’t slowed down by a romantic subplot, like Attack of the Clones. The chemistry and relationship between Boyega and Ridley was perfect.

The main baddie of the film is Kylo Ren, a Sith lord with a unique lightsaber design.

We learn that Kylo was a former apprentice of Luke’s who was turned to the Dark Side of the Force. We also learn that Kylo’s parents are… Han Solo and General Leia! Dun dun dun! Big plot twist of the film.

Kylo (real name Ben) wants to be like Darth Vader – he wants to be a badass Sith lord who doesn’t take crap from anybody. The only problem is that he’s really just an emo kid with daddy issues. That was the slight problem I had with the film. I expected Kylo to be this unemotional juggernaut with no hesitation in his blood. Instead, he’s a bit of a punk kid who probably grew up listening to My Chemical Romance and who shops at Hot Topic every day of the week. I don’t have a problem with villains with personality; I just have a problem with whiny brats.

The other major plot of the film is that the First Order has built a massive weapon called Starkiller Base, which can absorb the power of a sun and destroy multiple planets at once. Sound familiar? It’s essentially a new version of the Death Star, except instead of a space station, it’s an entire freakin’ planet.

Here is where The Force Awakens starts to tread way too close to a A New Hope. Another planet destroyer? Looking back, you can almost pinpoint the exact parallels between the two films. Don’t worry, there are numerous ways that this film distinguished itself from the first movie, but you can’t deny that there are strong similarities. Many of the peer reviews I’ve seen online so far are criticizing the fact that it’s more-or-less a reboot, but I’m not complaining. Creed did the same thing, and that movie was awesome.

A little over a year ago, I penned an article about six things we hope to see in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. One of those things was the death of an old character. I knew it was coming. I just knew someone was going to die. And of course, it had to be Han Solo. It makes sense when you look at the grand scheme of things. For one thing, Harrison Ford is old and getting close to retiring from action-heavy movies. Second, Ford was always iffy about Star Wars in general, hence why they froze his character in carbonite at the end of The Empire Strikes Back. His death in this film allowed him to exit the franchise in a nice way that gives justice to the character. Sure, Solo fans will be upset to see him go, but I think Finn and Rey are both decent characters to follow in his footsteps.

I’m a little upset that Luke Skywalker doesn’t show up until the last minute of the film. He’s the main component of the movie, yet we only get like 30 seconds of screen time from him, and he doesn’t even say anything! Overall, it was still a great way to end the movie, and it makes us excited for the next installment.

As you can expect, there’s an epic lightsaber fight near the end. Rey and Finn get their hands on Luke’s old lightsaber, and Kylo Ren wants it. Finn does surprisingly well with the weapon in his fight against a Sith lord, which makes me wonder – does this mean Finn has Jedi blood in him? Or are Stormtroopers exceptionally trained in hand-to-hand combat that they know how to properly wield swords? Or is Kylo Ren just that crappy of a dueler? It’s hard to determine the logic. But screw logic. Lightsabers are awesome.

While Finn’s possible Jedi-ness is questionable at best, we know for a fact that Rey is a Jedi – or that she is one with the Force. We watch her demonstrate the Jedi Mind Trick on a hapless Stormtrooper during her imprisonment (fun fact: that Stormtrooper was played by Daniel Craig), and she manages to “reverse Force mind read” Kylo Ren during her interrogation. Later on, after Finn is harmed in his duel with Kylo, Rey manages to retrieve the lightsaber using the Force, and then proceeds to kick the living crap out of the Sith lord. Such a beautiful scene, and easily one of the best fights in the saga.

The ending left the story open for continuation (obviously), so now the question is: what happens next? The widowed General Leia is still leading the Resistance against the First Order, Finn is injured but alive in the Resistance’s care, and Rey is now piloting the Millennium Falcon with Chewbacca and R2. The last shot is Rey handing the lightsaber to Luke on a weird island hideaway. Does this mean Luke is going to begin training her? Is Finn going to go fetch Rey to come back and help the Resistance? Will Finn even be allowed into the Resistance given that he was born and raised as a Stormtrooper? SO MANY QUESTIONS!

So yeah, the film was awesome. There is so much more to talk about, but I don’t think it’s possible to do the entire plot justice. It’s just that epic. Do yourself a favor and go see it, preferably in IMAX. If the plot doesn’t appeal to you, the performances and the jaw-dropping visuals will.

Have you seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens yet? What did you think? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter!