Star Wars Episode VII review

To say Star Wars Episode VII was the most anticipated movie of the year would be an understatement. Many Star Wars fans have been waiting thirty years for this movie, I’m not sure why it took so long but am glad they finally got round to making it.

The biggest change in this movie compared to the previous six is the fact George Lucas the creator of Star Wars wasn’t too heavily involved in its making. Lucas did actually have an outline for episodes 7-9 but they have been decided to use JJ Abrams direction for the next movies.

Coming from a big Star Wars fan this movie was a bit of a surprise as I wasn’t expecting a Han Solo centric movie. In the previous movies he was always a backup character but very much leads this one with almost all the story revolving around him in some way.

The new Star Wars movies are going to be a massive success if they are good or bad, we buy tickets before we see a movie not after and it’s hard not to get pulled in with all the hype too. So far it’s had amazing reviews across the board but for me it just didn’t deliver everything I’d hoped for. If I had to describe it to someone I’d say it was like they tried to remake episodes 4-6 in an abridged movie. They had a new Death Star, sand planet, snow planet, forest planet, space bar, orphan Jedi and numerous other familiar ingredients. Overall there just didn’t seem to be anything we haven’t seen before.

I know the thirty year gap can’t be helped but it did feel like we had missed a lot of action and I’m not sure if it would have been better to just leave the original story closed off with Return of the Jedi and just started something new in the same universe. Another option might have been to fill that gap with a few movies which didn’t include the original cast but there is opportunity for them to fill it in later.

The new characters Ray (Daisy Ridley) and Fin (John Boyega) are great additions to the Star Wars universe. Both have a lot of screen presence and really owned those parts. The future Star Wars franchise depends on new blood and I’m glad they didn’t try to over do it with loads of new throw away characters. Just throughout the movie we see both Ray and Fin’s characters develop massively overcoming their fears and getting to know their pasts.

Fin is one of the new breed Stormtroopers, this time instead of clones the First Order have recruited children and brain washed them into fighting. It gives them a more diverse and independent thinking army but it also gave Fin the opportunity to change his mind and leave escape a life as a Stormtrooper. He adds a lot of comedy to the movie too as well as being one of the more original parts of the movie. I don’t think any of the previous movies had someone like Fin.

Ray is very much this movie franchises Luke Skywalker which is strange as it still has a Luke. She’s somehow a very well spoken  scrap collecting orphan. By the end of the movie she appears to be one of the most powerful Jedi in the universe especially as there are only a few left.

Kylo Ren is the new dark lord in the movie replacing Darth Vader in the original movies. At the start of the movie he is a total bad ass and at one point even uses his force powers to stop a laser in mid air. Not sure how he stopped a beam of light but wow he did it with some class. Later on we find more about his past and he turned out to be more of a troubled teenager who has trouble fighting a Fin even though he hasn’t got any powers and only saw a Light sabre for the first time a few hours before. The fact he is Han and Leia’s son who went to the dark side for some reason just doesn’t weigh up, they would be the best parents ever, why would he turn so evil.

The best bit about the movie is just the return to the Star Wars universe in terms of concepts and the overall creative aspects from the music to tone and technology. They have re used just about everything they could from the previous movies and redelivered it in a streamlined modern package. A lot of people don’t like that Disney has left a big imprint on the movie but personally I love it. Lucas Arts did hardly anything with the franchise in terms of new movies. We should have had episode 7 maybe twenty years ago but now Disney owns it we should be able to see a new film every year or so. When Disney bought Marvel Studios people thought it might have a negative impact on the creative side. In reality Disney are more proactive with future development and pile a lot of money into their movies. One thing is for sure and it’s that we will never have a twenty year gap between Star Wars movies again.

To be honest it is worth going to see for the Captain America 2 : Civil War trailer alone, its like you get an epic movie for free.

The downside of this movie is that there wasn’t a lot of new stuff. It was fairly predictable in a lot of parts and didn’t really have anything new. It didn’t really conclude in any clear way, everyone pretty much just survived.

One thing I think that would really give the Star Wars movie franchise a bright future would be to just reboot. I loved the old movies and that wont change but I’d love some that didn’t have massive gaps between and were more consistent. I’d love to take George Lucas’s original scripts for episodes 1-6 and make with modern movie technology and then make his version of episodes 7-9 too. J.J Abrams is a great writer and director but there is only so much anyone can do when it comes to pulling together a massive franchise like Star Wars.

Overall Star Wars Episode VII The Force Awakens is an amazing movie which will keep old fans happy while not being too alienating for newcomers to the Star Wars Universe.  Being honest when Episode 1 came out is was met with great reviews and everyone seemed to love it. That faded after a few years and now everyone just complains about Jar Jar Binks. Where J.J Abrams Star Wars movies will be ranked in another ten years we will have to wait to find out. It’s an amazing movie but does have a lot to live up to.

Posted by Adi Mursec on December 19, 2015