Movie Review: Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Writer/director J.J Abrams needs to legally change his name to " The Legendary Sci-Fi Franchise Resuscitator" as soon as humanly possible. Against all odds, Abrams returned the long-dormant and disgraced Star Trek franchise to its former glory with his spectacular 2009 reboot. Abrams has now worked his magic on the Star Wars franchise, making the long-awaited seventh installment, The Force Awakens, the first worthy sequel to the iconic original trilogy.

As soon as the trademark "In a galaxy far, far away" scroll appears on screen, it's clear that Abrams' primary goal was to restore the sense of fun to the series and he succeeds in a major way. By the time the first action scene rolls around 10 minutes into the film, I was instantly reminded of the joy the original Star Wars franchise brought me as a child and the mediocrity Episodes I-III offered up in droves seemed like a distant memory. The promising start is indicative of the rest of the film as Abrams keeps the tone appropriately light and drops stunning, large-scale action sequences throughout the film. Star Wars fans have been asking for a giddy nostalgia trip since Return of the Jedi came out in 1983 and The Force Awakens is that film that finally turns that three-decade longing into something tangible.

Abrams also deserves a lot of credit for assembling a pitch-perfect cast. The biggest sin of the prequels was the horrendous miscasting of Hayden Christensen, Natalie Portman, Ewan McGregor and Jake Lloyd in the lead roles. Their collective wooden acting was painful to watch and forced audiences to become entirely disengaged from the characters they were playing. Here, the three main leads (John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Oscar Issac) are all fantastic. Boyega, Ridley and Issac all bring a level of energy and personality to their respective roles that the antagonists of the previous three films sorely lacked. Rey, Finn and Poe Dameron are the type of likable, interesting heroes you build a series around and the prospect of watching their characters progress over two more films is very exciting.

While I clearly can't get into the specifics of the story without divulging a ton of spoilers, I will say that the film is basically A New Hope 2.0. The plot points feel very familiar and there were numerous points of the film where I thought was I was watching a remake of the 1976 original instead of an entirely new film. I get that Abrams and co-writers Michael Arndt and Lawrence Kasdan-who had a hand in writing The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi- were trying to recapture the spirit of the original trilogy after George Lucas deviated so far from the formula with the prequels, but the excessive copying-and-pasting from the narrative of A New Hope prevents The Force Awakens from rivaling the quality of Episodes IV-VI.

The Force Awakens may not be a groundbreaking piece of movie magic like the originals were, but it still nicely sets the stage for the new era of Star Wars films. With the obligatory world building now out of the way, the trilogy has the chance to really flourish with its next installment.

4/5 Stars