Star Wars Review
Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS
The long anticipated Star Wars sequel has finally arrived, and it was fantastic. The movie begins on the planet Jakku, a desert planet even less hospitable than Tatooine. Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) has discovered a piece of a map that leads to Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). The camp is quickly attacked by the evil First Order and the Sith Kylo Ren (Adam Driver). Dameron leaves the map with his droid, BB-8, and is captured. This is a fantastic way to start the movie, with immediate action and an introduction to essential characters. I also liked that what happened to Luke was immediately revealed, and that they didn’t ignore his absence for the entirety of the movie. Ren orders his storm troopers to kill everyone in the village, and all but FN-2187, later known as Finn (John Boyega) do.
Next we are introduced to Rey (Daisy Ridley), a scavenger and Jakku resident who is waiting for her family to return to her. She finds BB-8 and protects him from other, less sympathetic scavengers. Rey’s introduction is interestingly similar to Luke’s, in that they’re both from a desert planet, and are both unable to leave, despite the fact that they want to.
Meanwhile Finn has become disenchanted with the First Order, and decides to break Poe out of custody so he can fly Finn way from the Starkiller Base. They escape on a tie fighter, and fly back to Jakku to get BB-8 after Poe reveals to Finn that BB-8 holds part of the map to the famed Luke Skywalker. The friendship between Poe and Finn is an especially entertaining one filled with humor and friendly banter. I can’t wait to see more of this friendship in the next movie. Their tie fighter gets shot down over Jakku, leaving Finn alone thinking Poe is dead. Finn walks across the desert and ends up at the settlement Rey works at. He finds BB-8 and Rey and after telling them he is part of the Resistance (an organization dedicated to stopping the First Order), they are attacked by stormtroopers. They escape in the Millennium Falcon with a cringe worthy take off, and an entertaining fight around old Star Destroyers. They leave Jakku and are quickly found by not so retired smugglers Han Solo (Harrison Ford), and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew). This first scene with Han is a spectacular one, with several references to the original trilogy, as well as information on the whereabouts of Luke Skywalker.
While Han is introduced, the villain, Supreme Leader Snoak (Andy Serkis), has a talk with Kylo Ren about his judgement, and asks him if he’s going to have judgement problems now that his father is involved. His father, Han Solo. This is a very casual, blink-and-you-miss-it reveal for such a large secret, which was, in my opinion the best way to do it. It was truly an audience shocker, and had everyone in the theater open-mouthed.
The movie progresses quickly from there, Han, Finn, Rey, and Chewbacca fight off some of Han’s unhappy customers, and end up at Maz Cantina where Finn decides to quit the group, and Rey finds Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber. This is an especially interesting part that incorporates clips of new visions and old quotes in one giant vision that quite literally knocks Rey off her feet. This is the moment in the story where another secret becomes clear. Finn is not going to be the jedi of this series like the posters predicted, it’s actually going to be Rey.
The Coruscant system is destroyed by Starkiller Base, and soon after the First Order appears, and the Resistance soon after. The Resistance fights off the Order, but Kylo Ren manages to kidnap Rey before they leave. She has seen the map fragment, and Ren thinks he can pull it from her memory. After the Order leaves, Han is reunited with General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher), and C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) makes an appearance as well. They head back to the Resistance base where Finn and Poe are reunited. They decide collectively to destroy the base. Finn, Han, and Chewbacca take the Falcon to rescue Rey and take down the base’s shields while Poe leads an airstrike. Rey escapes on her own by using the force for the first time, and Han and Finn take out the shields. They all decide to stay and help destroy the base from the inside however, and this leads to a confrontation between Han Solo and Kylo Ren. Han tries to appeal to Ren as his father, but in the end Ren kills Han. At this moment the theater was silent, it was an amazingly heartbreaking scene.
While escaping the base Rey and Kylo Ren fight and they both make it out alive. Ren and a general, General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson) escape the base, and Rey, an injured Finn, and Chewbacca head back to the Resistance base.
Finally the movie is coming to a close, but not without one final detail. Previously unresponsive R2-D2 wakes up and reveals that he has the rest of the map to Luke. Rey, Chewbacca and R2 head off to a previously unknown planet. She travels across an island and finally finds who we’ve all been looking for: Luke Skywalker. Rey holds out Anakin’s lightsaber and, frustratingly enough, the movie ends.
The Force Awakens not only blew the prequels out of the water, but also every other movie ever. It make a record breaking $247.97 million opening weekend, with $119.1 million opening day. The Force Awakens currently holds around fifty eight box office records in the United States and Canada alone, including highest grossing film of all time, which it reached in just twenty days. The previous record holder, Avatar, took 318 days to achieve the record.
Personally, I loved the movie, and was glad to see it kept true to the originals, but made an impact in its own right. I walked away shocked beyond belief, heartbroken, and in awe. It was a truly spectacular film, and I really recommend it.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_box_office_records_set_by_Star_Wars:_The_Force_Awakens
http://deadline.com/2015/12/star-wars-force-awakens-box-office-thursday-night-previews-1201669166/