Star Wars: The Force Awakens has recently crossed the $900 million mark in North America; with this occurring, The Force Awakens is now the official highest growing movie in North America when unadjusted for inflation.
Not only that, but it has gotten five Academy Award nominations and heaps of praise from critics and audiences alike.
By now, pretty much everyone has seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens. For those that haven’t, it’s a simple story that follows the main character of Finn (played by newcomer John Boyega), a storm-trooper who gains a conscience after witnessing several people be massacred for rebelling against the New Empire.
Finn escapes with Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) out of the New Republic’s ship and crashes into a planet that won’t be spoiled in this review. From there, Finn meets Rey (Played by Daisy Ridley) and they go on a mission against the New Republic.
Knowing just that as well as watching this movie with all of the hype that surrounded it was surprisingly a whelming experience. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a movie that is more nostalgic than it is on focusing with originality and or covering new territory.
The story is enjoyable, but there’s nothing new that the writers brought to the table. There are several references to the original trilogy but nothing in terms of plot points that really differentiate itself from the original Star Wars trilogy.
Which is fine because this movie has great moments of spectacle; the opening space battle alone is reason enough to see it in theaters.
The action scenes are intense; whilst at the same time don’t rely on shaky camera work to propel forth such a feeling of being there front and center of the action.
The action is followed by tight cinematography that mixes wide angle shots very well with the numerous close-up shots that are used when trying to induce intensity during key scenes.
The acting is all top notch with not a single flaw in any of the performances the way that there were in the Prequel trilogy. There are no Jar-Jar Bink type of characters and all of the characters in The Force Awakens are immensely entertaining to watch go through the plot points on screen.
With that in mind, there are a few characters that have unsatisfying character arcs that could have been done in a different way that would have made the film something special instead of a retread back into the safety net of the original trilogy.
There’s nothing wrong with retreading back to the original movies. However, it certainly would have been neat to witness something transcending in a movie that is so thoroughly entertaining and fun to watch.
Speaking of transcending, John Williams score is very similar to his score for the original trilogy and surprisingly wasn’t as majestic as his score for the other movies in the franchise. It’s not necessarily a bad score, just one that could have used a bit more diversity with its usage of instruments.
With all of that said, this is one movie that is definitely worth watching for the spectacle that is on screen and just knowing that this movie is light years better than the prequel trilogy.
If you go in knowing that it’s a shameless retread back to the original Star Wars trilogy and very nostalgic, then you will enjoy Star Wars: The Force Awakens the way that this viewer did.