Star Wars: The Force Awakens Takes Us Back To A Galaxy Far, Far Away!

With the letdown of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, and after years of excitement and anticipation, the bases were loaded for J.J. Abrams.  All he had to do was not strikeout, and he did better than that.  It wasn’t quite a grand-slam, but it was at least a bases clearing triple, and it is hard to be upset about that.  For all of you that don’t understand baseball, what I am saying is that Star Wars: The Force Awakens is amazingly good!

I usually give some sort of blurb about the plot of the movie with this paragraph, but this is a Star Wars film, so you should kind of know what you are in for.  If you haven’t seen a Star Wars movie yet, this is not a good place to start because a lot of Star Wars people do a lot of Star Wars stuff, and if you are like me and wanted a lot of Star Wars Stuff, you are in luck because The Force Awakens is lousy (as in, has a lot of) with it!

Which is one of the reasons this movie wasn’t quite a grand-slam, it may have had a few too many nods to the original trilogy.  The other nitpicks would be that a few of the computer animated characters looked a little off, and that some of the dialog was a little info-dumpy.  Like I said, those are all nitpicks in an otherwise great movie, and they do not ruin the experience at all.

The old cast was enchanting, and looked like they were thoroughly enjoying themselves.  Yes, even grumpy old Harrison Ford looked happy to be Han Solo again.  It was wonderful to see original gang back on screen.  The new cast was excellent as well:  J.J. really got the perfect people to fill all the roles.  I can’t wait to see them in movies for years to come.

The special effects in The Force Awakens were fantastic, and the use of practical (real) effects really helped this movie feel like one of the originals.  You can tell the difference when they build a real ship versus just having someone sit on a green box.  Unfortunately like I mentioned earlier, those practical effects and set pieces did make some of the CGI stand out more, and not in a good way.  Still, overall they did a great job.

Even if Star Wars: The Force Awakens was terrible, it still would have been one of the biggest hits of the year, but I am elated to report that it is an event movie worth watching, and a must see in theaters.  J.J and his gang revived a classic franchise for a new generation, and I can’t wait to see what happens next in my favorite galaxy far, far away!