*Originally written December 17th, 2015*
"A New Hope"
Someone give J.J. Abrams a blowjob right now. He has earned it. The Force Awakens brought my childhood right back to me. I loved every second of it. After the misguided prequels (Which I do like, but they are heavily flawed), Disney got Star Wars away from that mad man George Lucas and gave us a film that relied on nostalgia, but still paved way for a new generation of Kids to fall in love with Star Wars the same way I did.
Taking place 30 years after the events of Return of the Jedi, Luke Skywalker is in hiding after failing to train a new group of Jedi, while a new version of Vader's army called The New Order led by Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) are trying to finish what he started. Two new leads Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Fin (John Boyega) are swept into this story to help find Luke and fight the New Order.
What worried me most about this was the how the new cast would compare to the iconic original, and within the first few scenes I knew I had nothing to worry about at all. John Boyega was great, he was funny and he handled action well, but Daisy Ridley really stole the show out of the newbies. She was a strong, likeable and well developed character. I really liked where they went with the character too, she is the real star of the film and franchise now by the looks of it. Oscar Isaac (An actor I love now) was a charisma magnet in his role, he disappears for most of the film, but is great with all his screen time. All those new characters blended with the existing cast extremely well.
The original cast feel right at home here too. Harrison Ford eases back into his role as Han Solo and his chemistry with Chewbacca is better than it has ever been. Carrie Fisher was fine as Leia once again, she was sadly not given much to do. I'm not even sure what I can say about Luke Skywalker without branching into spoiler territory, so I'm gonna leave it at that.
The new villain of the piece Kylo Ren was damn fantastic too. He was menacing, violent and handled some dramatic scenes as well which I did not expect at all. People were confused about his light-saber from the trailers, but the new design is used effectively in the finale.
J.J. Abrams crafted this world with such care and respect for the material that it just induced nostalgia and made me feel like a child again. There was a great mix of practical and CGI effects, although some of the CGI characters did look a little out of place at times. There were some really beautiful shots throughout too, while a couple were in the trailer, there was still a lot to be surprised about. Even just the look of some of the sets and set-pieces blew me away. Like the New Order's weapon, it looked gorgeous when it was being fired, loved the bright and vivid colours.
The tone is handled extremely well. It captures that sense of awe and wonder from the original trilogy, the humour was genuinely funny at times too, there was the odd "easy" and crowd-pleasing joke, but that didn't bother me. I was fairly shocked by the opening scene, it was probably the darkest and most violent scene from the whole franchise. The tone quickly changes to a more lighthearted adventure, but when it needs to, it gets dark and effectively emotional.
Speaking of emotional, The Force Awakens hits emotional heights more than any other film I've watched this year. From John Williams iconic score, I felt I was right back as a child. I'm not gonna lie either and I'm not gonna spoil it, but a scene towards the end brought a genuine tear out my eye. When the scene started you knew exactly where it was going, but you just didn't want it to happen, and when it did it was heartbreaking.
Star Wars - The Force Awakens was everything and more I could have possibly wanted from a return to the Star Wars universe. Emotional, nostalgic, beautifully shot and featured a great new cast which included a new rising star from Daisy Ridley. My film of the year. I just wish it was 2017 already so I can see Episode VIII.
10/10 Dans
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
Watch the trailer below:
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