Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens Movie Review

Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens (2015)
Written by: Lawrence Kasdan & J.J. Abrams and Michael Arndt
Directed by: J.J. Abrams
Starring: Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Oscar Isaac, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver
Rated: PG-13

Plot:
New and returning characters band together to aid the Resistance, stop the menacing First Order, and find someone that can win the war.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens - A return to form.

Review:
I don't want to spoil the movie for you, so I'll provide a general review, and then clearly denote in BIG BOLD text that I'm going to venture into spoiler territory with the plot and specific characters.

As I was sitting in the theater and saw the title, the crawling text, and the music flourish a smile crossed my face. Star Wars is back.  
I like the new Star Wars movie, it combines elements of the original trilogy and adds new characters, creating a movie that feels like it belongs in the franchise. Though, I can't help but feel it pulled too much from the original trilogy. The movie relies heavily on returning characters, that would have little relevance if you hadn't seen the original trilogy. Sure most people know Star Wars, but a movie should stand on it's own. The movie forgoes establishing well known characters, relying on viewers existing understanding of them. The homages run into contrived territory. It's very much fan service, for which I can't wholly blame the creators. If you want this movie to succeed you need to bring the fans what they want, and that's characters we know. 
This is a big ensemble cast and the characters get lost in the shuffle. We're introduced to new characters, all of which are likable, but could have used a few more scenes to build their personalities and motivations. 
I don't have any issue with the plot points on paper, but the focus and the importance conveyed to some of the later scenes makes a big difference and rang hollow for me. Some of the scenes in the last half felt like they were just boxes on a checklist needing to be ticked. They didn't feel like the big moments they should have been.
Every facet of this film is high quality. It' easy to mess up a Star Wars movie, just look at the prequel trilogy. This movie plays it safe story wise, but establishes good characters that are well acted. There's no Anakin Skywalker level of acting in this movie. It looks awesome, every scene is framed and captured perfectly.

Verdict:
This movie is a product of rebooting a franchise, attempting to keep fans happy, and aiming for success. They did that. The writers have created potentially iconic characters, nearly as good as Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. It's a good movie that's geared for fans of the original trilogy, though the homages veer into contrivance. While tge story is all too familiar, strong characters set it apart, though we're left focusing a bit too much on sequels instead of the film at hand. I can't help but think Star Wars fatigue will occur. Disney, who now owns the franchise is already planning multiple sequels and spinoffs.
Watch it, in this case, buy a ticket.



STOP! 
READING FURTHER WILL REVEAL PLOT POINTS AND SPECIFIC CHARACTER ARCS. IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS MOVIE, STOP!

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Spoiler Review
The movie opens with Oscar Isaac's Poe Dameron uncovering a piece of info locating Luke Skywalker's location, who disappeared long ago.  I was excited to see an opening with Isaac, though sadly he's absent for the majority of the movie. His character falls short of what he could have been. We're told he's an ace pilot, but we don't see it.
The resistance needs Luke, though I'm not sure why. I suppose to restore order to the force or something to that effect. Of course the First Order, which is bad, discover Dameron and he entrusts this piece of info about Luke to his droid BB-8. This was such a blatant Episode 4 homage, that I found it irritating. Dameron is captured and BB-8 escapes.

We're then introduced to a Storm Trooper that loses his resolve as a fellow soldier dies in his arms. I guessed this was Boyega's character Finn due to trailer indications and I was right, though Finn needed a couple more establishing scenes. If he's trained from birth to be a fighter as the movie indicates, he sure has a lot of personality. Child soldiers are often depicted as hollow human beings, dead inside. Finn doesn't seem this way at all. Is non-conformance common among Storm Troopers? How was he not weeded out earlier? I have some big questions for the Storm Trooper training program, but I don't think I'll get answers. If Finn's depiction were more realistic I wouldn't like him as much anyway.

Kylo Ren is the heir apparent to Darth Vader, according to the trailer, and later revealed in the movie. He's got force powers, a cool helmet, and there's just something about a man dressed in black. The movie establishes a couple of times he has a short temper. It's almost comedic, which is a detriment if you're creating a serious villain.
To complete the introduction of new characters the movie cuts to Rey, a scavenger on Jakku. She's marking the days for something at first unclear, which turns out she's waiting for her family to come back, though I don't know why she thinks they will. They left her on Jakku, though the specifics are incredibly vague. She of course finds BB-8, which reminded me of another robe wearing youngster that picked up a droid or two in Episode 4. Meanwhile Finn frees Dameron as a means to secure his own escape from being a Storm Trooper. That could have been set up better. Finn goes from First Order cheerleader to rebel in no time flat. Their escape ends with a crash landing on, guess where, Jakku. Poe is presumed dead and Finn stumbles upon Rey. I was surprised at just how quickly all three new characters interact.

Rey can handle herself dispatching a couple of guys who were harassing her and her new droid buddy BB-8, but she's no match for the First Order TIE fighters. Finn hides under the guise of a Resistance fighter and recruits Rey and BB-8 to continue his escape. They attempt escape, resorting to an old hunk of junk, cue the reveal of the Millennium Falcon which was contrived. They escape, Rey proving to be a deft pilot before capture. Who captures them? Cue the reveal of Han Solo and Chewbacca. It was a neat moment but it felt highly contrived. They so happened to have just located the Millennium Falcon and were in the same star system, talk about timing.

The movie establishes Han Solo is still a smarmy smuggler and that Rey knows everything about everything, though I have to question how. Han Solo provides an endearing moment informing Rey and Finn that the myths about Jedi and Luke Skywalker are real. All of it. Luke is gone and Han Solo is sad. They go to a bar. I guess to drown their sorrows. That, and Episode 4 had a cantina, so you can bet this film gets one too. Finn reveals he's really a Storm Trooper and tricked everyone so he could escape. Rey discovers Luke's old light saber. Why is it in this bar? How did they just happen to go to this bar? How did it just happen to be in the top most box Rey finds? It's another contrived moment. Rey has visions. and this ostensibly is when the force awakens. She's special, but we have little time to dwell on that as the First Order and the Resistance have arrived at the bar to retrieve BB-8. It was a firefight! Battle ensues, Finn joins the frey and uses the light saber to fight a Storm Trooper with an awesome electro shock ax sword. I don't know if Storm Troopers get light saber training, but Finn knew what he was doing, despite having no logical reason to know such a skill. One thing this movie does well is light saber fights. Every single one is really good. Unfortunately the X-wing and Tie fighter dog fights aren't as good. Kylo Ren captures Rey because he senses her force powers, but she escapes as the force is strong with her. Who is she? How does she have the power? How is she this good with the power in just a couple of hours. Luke Skywalker was 'the one' and it took him a couple of movies to become proficient.

Meanwhile Han Solo and Finn meet general Leia Organa in a moment that wasn't contrived. Guess what, in a moment that had no setup, Kylo Ren is the son of Leia and Han. If Rey is their daughter or a twin, that's going to be a massive cop out. Don't do that to me J.J. Abrams. Don't do it. If she is their daughter it should have been revealed right then. So my guess is that Rey is Luke's daughter.... somehow?  We see C-3PO, because we've seen everybody else and technology doesn't become obsolete in this star system. C-3PO utters the humorous line to Han, "You probably don't recognize me because my arm is red." The movie has a lot of funny quips, though it doesn't feel out of place. The movie stay light hearted throughout, maybe too light hearted. I guess that sets us up for a darker sequel.

The Resistance decides to blow up the bigger, badder, deadlier death star and Finn decides to rescue Rey. The movie does a great job of establishing chemistry between characters, all of them. Han of course confronts Kylo Ren. I saw it coming a mile away. Kylo Ren of course kills Han. The moment lacked the emotion it should have had, because Han never seemed integral to this movie. The scene relies solely on the fact that Han Solo was important thirty years ago and that's where it fails to connect.

As we near the two hour mark, the movie needs a climactic battle, but can't decide between X wings or light sabers so we get both, I wish the X wing scenes had more impact as they seem like an afterthought or the light saber battles made sense.
The light saber fight is Kylo Ren versus Finn. We've established Finn is good, though he has no reason to be. Kylo Ren is injured. Chewbacca shot him in retaliation for that bad thing he did. The movie makes sure to point that out, but we never seem him struggling, wobbly kneed, or grimacing in pain during battle. We see him punch the wound multiple times which I didn't understand. He is poised during battle, which makes his difficulty in dispatching Finn all the more strange. How is a Storm Trooper a better swordsman than Kylo Ren? Does Kylo not train? This fight should be so one sided. Either Kylo Ren is really bad or Finn is really good. Neither of which makes an ounce of sense. If the argument is that an unbalanced fight ends too quickly, have Ren toy with them, confidant in his dominance. It would fit his character. Kylo doesn't even use force powers, which could be due to his injury.
Kylo downs Finn, and it would be a bold move to kill Finn, but at the end of the movie his status is undetermined. I doubt he's dead. This franchise will be built around John Boyega's Finn, among others.

Rey picks up a light saber, and by that I mean uses the force to pull it to her hand, something Kylo Ren couldn't do in that moment. I guess his injury. Rey is even better than Finn with a light saber. There is no way she's trained with a light saber, and she's better at the Force and light sabers than Kylo Ren, though he's hurt, so the movie tells us again. The base blows up, Rey gives Kylo a nasty facial scar, the ground collapses and they part ways. It was a cool looking battle though as light sabers sliced through trees in the dark forest.
The X wing plight to blow up the First Order base lacked gravitas. Too little time was devoted to it, and never did it establish Dameron as the greatest pilot ever, other than telling us to believe it. Yeah, he's back now. He was okay before, tricked you. Dameron helps destroy the base, but the moment had no weight because there is a light saber battle. Even the movie knows that's more important, shorting the X wing pilots' victory. It really wasn't presented as that big of a victory, not like it should have been. They just destroyed the super-mega-death star! The movie doesn't give them the win, not like when Luke destroyed one. It's an issue of juggling too many plot points, sometimes you fumble one. It came off as just a box the movie had to tick in its Star Wars checklist.

Back at base camp, BB-8 provides the location for Luke, but the map is incomplete. Cue R2D2, who we're told may never wake up, wakes up and provides them the complete map. I didn't find that contrived at all. Rey takes the Millennium Falcon and Chewie to find Luke. The final scene is a great reveal of Luke, but it was given so much weight it turns into a cliffhanger. I'm left thinking about the sequels more than the movie I just watched. The movie's big focus on finding Luke is in essence saying, wait for the next movie.

The movie had a difficult time juggling so many characters. Poe Dameron was absent most of the movie, and the original trilogy characters were shoehorned in for the most part. I understand the need for fan service, but it was forced. Domhall Gleeson who played General Hux had a lot of screen time, but did very little. Introducing Snoke this early as the puppet master for Kylo Ren put Kylo Ren at the kiddie table, not big enough to sit with the adults. Give Kylo Ren more room to be menacing.
Will Captain Phasma get more screen time in the sequels? Gwendolyn Christie was horribly under used. Why cast her when they could have used an extra? There has got to be more for that character.

Verdict:
Is Star Wars: The Force Awakens good? Absolutely. Directing, acting, story, set, production values, everything is excellent.
My main complaints are that Rey and Finn are too good. Kylo Ren is too inept, and the climactic battle was just filler padding out the reveal of Luke Skywalker.
It was a great bookend, but Luke might as well have said, "Wait for the next movie, that's the real plot point." This movie tried too hard to cement that the next movie is coming. Maybe it should have ended with the Millennium Falcon taking off. We lose the awesome Luke reveal, but it would have helped this movie stand on its own.