Star Wars: The Force Awakens

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Director: J.J. Abrams

Written: Lawrence Kasdan, J.J. Abrams, Michael Arndt, and characters by George Lucas.

Cast: Daisy Ridley (Rey), Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Carrie Fisher (Leia), Billie Lourd, Harrison Ford (Han Solo), Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron), Adam Driver (Kylo Ren), Gwendoline Christie (Captain Phasma), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), Domhnall Gleeson (General Hux), John Boyega (Finn), Simon Pegg, Kenny Baker (R2-D2), Lupita Nyong'o (Maz Kanata), Andy Serkis (Supreme Leader Snoke), Anthony Daniels (C3PO), Warwick Davis, Max Von Sydow (Lor San Tekka), Maisie Richardson Sellers (Korr Sella), Iko Uwais (Razoo Quin-Fee), Tim Rose (Admiral Akbar), and Greg Grunberg as Snap Wexley.

The anticipation in waiting for this film is pretty big deal, opening day is December 18, 2015 and i had bought tickets for the film three weeks before, the beautiful, special thing about this particular film is my wife and eleven year old kid who pretty much dislikes everything tech in films, not really a Star Wars fan, their thing is horror.  So both of them told me to go and buy tickets for them, so yes it was a special day. A moment in my life, my wife and kid doing something special for me, especially a week before Christmas, that meant a lot to me. To make my evening better than any day, my friend George and his son went and it gets better, his dad went as well, haven't seen his dad in a really long time, but that's another story, i don't have enough room to review and go over every aspect in my life.  So we have six in our merry crew, and i really worried about the lines, yes the waiting to the film, don't know what happened? but, the wait was only twenty minutes long, maybe because of the time, 6:10 P.M. don't know but having awesome seats with my family and best friend with his family meant so much, it was like a dream come true. The experience with not waiting in line with crazy fan boys made my day.
To make a long story short, as the Star Wars crawl began i glance over at my friends and family, checking out their own personal reactions, it was like a hallmark moment, their expressions were amazing, a smile that would put anyone to shame.  What can i say, the experience was not just seeing the film, but going with your loved ones, friends, and together laughing, smiling, that's what good film-making does to you, even if the movie isn't your thing, it still puts you in a very different place. 

Spoiler Alert: Warning to anyone that has not seen the film, from this point on, if you've not seen the film then do not continue. So with out further ado, Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie review: Rey (Daisey Ridley), the scavenger who's parents abandoned her, left her, a bit of mystery with this character, but no worries her growth is well done.  The writers handling of Rey was good; You never misunderstand her, and the situations that she is confronted with.  Rey's situations are pretty devastating, she lives on the planet Jakku, scavenging for food, her life is a ticking time bomb, day after day she survives.  Rey is strong willed, her ability to take care of herself is one of those traits you love on the silver screen.  Her growth was done well because the film was two hours and twenty minuets, a difficult task as a writer and having those other characters to deal with, is an amazing feat, an accomplished well designed construct shown on film, Rey became something more from beginning to the end of the film, i even loved the way she slowly excepted the fact that she is Force sensitive, the scenes with Kylo Ren were emotional roller costar ride, that blasted you back to when Vader told Luke who he really was, that denial, fateful scene brought you back to the 80s.

Finn (John Boyega) the conflicted stormtrooper in the heat of battle makes a choice, his role is much larger than he thinks.  The guy makes mistakes, but manages to get out of a situation without harm, or at least tries not to get in trouble.  The conflict that makes him defect from the evil, vile, First Order, aka the remnants of the Empire. Yes, remnants, or at least what we know of,  maybe the Supreme Leader (Andy Serkis) has more of a fleet, granted the First Order had a massive force, but it wasn't as big as what the Emperor had back then, the First Order's military only used certain amounts of ships, only a squad of some tie fighters, and troopers went to the planet, as if the commanders were trying to conserve there resources, which makes sense.  Finn making things very difficult for them made his personal scenes memorable, i mean a stormtrooper with convictions, loved every minute of it.  The conflict for him. after he saw the death and destruction is what drew me to the film.

Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) the mysterious, evil Jedi made his entrance killing Lor San Tekka (Max von Sydow). The actors by the way, did an amazing job with the only scene they had together, great pick as the conflicted dark jedi. Ren was on the planet to extract information from, anyone who knows the whereabouts of Luke Skywalker.  Kylo Ren has some deep issues, his parents are Han and Leia, afterwards Ren was trained in the force by Luke then the darkside consumed him.  Luke went into hiding because of Kylo Ren turning bad, he felt responsible, so i get it, a deep dark situation putting him in front of the Supreme Leader, giving him a novice jedi approach, you would think his training was complete, but his lack of experience proved he could be beaten.  Kylo is one of those antagonist, full of energy, mean spirited, no patients what's so ever kinda guy. The character was written to perfection, his actions, and scenes were done well. Reminding me of another bad guy, Darth Vader, yes they're both for to different places, but alike in some ways, and the link, almost obsession with Vader was what made me love this evil, jedi.

Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) aka Apocalypse, oops wrong film.  Yes he is the bad guy in that up coming X-men film.  Sorry, so sorry, Disney, Disney, Disney.  OK, we're back to Star Wars: Force Awakens.  Anyway Poe Dameron is one of those cool characters, and he is one of the X-wing pilots. Kinda reminded me of Luke back in New Hope.  His personality fits well with the story, great introduction to an iconic character to be.  The special forces guy, he was a leader, an advance rebel enforcer, loved his scenes. I can't wait for how they're going to use the character later on, a well developed resistance pilot, cool stuff.

Han/Leia/Chewbacca/Luke Skywalker these guys were all good well written into the story, we all know the actors so to introduce these iconic characters is really pointless: If you haven't seen A New Hope, or Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, then this section of the review is important, not to me because i know who they are and so does a million more people. Han, Leia, Chewbacca, Luke are the iconic characters in the older movies, so if you haven't seen them, i highly suggest that you do. The characters are the resistance, rebels against the Empire at the time, now in this film they're up against the First Order, remnants of an old massive military that had enough to take out thousands of planets, with that being said, i'm just giving you a bit of background to the importance of these iconic characters, and how they fit in this film. The heroes of the rebellion are the core to the story, they're what makes the pieces fit, in a complicated, ongoing war between to sides.  So go and watch the movies i had mentioned, and get to know the heroes of the galaxy.  Understanding them is the key to the film.

Special Effects/Environment/Story: The effects and the environment that the characters live in is truly amazing, when you see the falcon flying around avoiding, debris, and the environment around it, really did it for me, especially the crashed Star Destroyer, awesome scene in the film; Really gave you a sense of what that battle did to the surrounding planets, and how the people had to survive. The Empire really had so much control it was so overwhelming that when they finally lost everything, the folks and the planets in that sector paid the price for the battle that turned the tides.
One character in the story that i really loved is Maz Kanata (Lupita Nyong'o), a strong mystical alien, you know the one, she had the very large glasses, optics.  The way she interacted with everyone was epic.  Loved the vision Rey had, and Maz explained the force, and it's power, something beautiful, amazing occurred in that scene; The emotion she conveyed, when she was telling Rey about the force made the film. The scene went on, and the reaction she got after Rey pretty much turned and left, the disturbing situations and her pasts were colliding.

The story from start to finish was on an epic scale, no issues, and a perfect story with only a few holes right? Nope the film did really good in that department.  Kylo Ren is connected to Han, Leia and, Luke Skywalker. Rey and Finn there intro was exciting, and the way everything was connected to the force and the film was definitely watchable.  The story was just that, a Star Wars film, a holiday experience one should see at the silver screen.  The Force Awakens was more than i expected, even after trying to filter out the reviews and comments, fan boy spoliers, this film brought me back to what a Star Wars film should feel like, the emotion, experience, and fun is all mixed in this film.