Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) Review

"We'll figure it out. We'll use the Force."
"That's not how the Force works."

               
Grab your droids, abandon your TIE fighters and complete those cosplays as the new Star Wars film has landed. The Force Awakens comes to us 38 years after the original film engulfed the world like a nuclear powered death star. This time, the story is set 30 years after the events of the original trilogy, and the First Order has taken over in the Empire’s place. Luke (Mark Hamill) is gone, Leia (Carrie Fisher) heads up the Resistance backed by the Republic and attempts to find her brother by sending our renowned pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) to obtain a map to his location. Of course, things are never simple and quickly things escalate out of control.

Perhaps one of the most impressive element of The Force Awakens is its commitment to the new and the old. Fresh faces in the form of Daisy Ridley and John Boyega help revitalise the series while showing that it can still hold onto its charm with familial favourites Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford. It’s a lesson in unity on a galactic scale. After all, it would have been all too easy to make a continuation of the series that focused entirely on old faces, but this is where The Force Awakens makes a bold decision – to create new lead characters and give their roles to relative newcomers.

Ridley stars as Jakku scavenger Rey, a bright-eyed and capable woman who hopes for the day her family will come back for her. But she isn’t messing around. Quick to adapt to a whole spectrum of new situations, Ridley’s Rey jumps straight into action whenever necessary and her performance has an unbridled charm about it which makes it hard not to like her. Rey’s intriguing story gives Ridley all the cards to play with, and she handles the mix between light-hearted humour and serious drama impressively. Sufficed to say it is a welcome change in the series to see a woman secure the lead role and head up what can only be described as 135 minutes of pure passion and entertainment.

This delightful excerpt is from a longer review I wrote on the film, which you can check out here (if you want to see what rating I gave it, what I thought of John Boyega's performance - as well as the new droids and much more).