Review of Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) by Odjento — 18 Dec 2015

JJ Abrams has delivered an absolute blast of a film with The Force Awakens, which is admittedly a film with flaws, but an incredible ride for any Star Wars fan to behold and possibly one of the greatest in the franchise now.

PRO’S.

First off I must admit I was sceptical about John Boyega from watching the trailers, but I actually found him a highly enjoyable watch, being able to infuse comedy into the film and still hold his own in more serious scenes. But whilst Boyega does a good job, Adam Driver absolutely kills it as Kylo Ren, bringing sheer and unchiselled menace to the screen, absolutely dominating any other actors with his presence and still yet being able to bring a sense of humanity to him. Driver has made possibly one of the best Star Wars villains, but we’ll have to see how he progresses through the next 2 entries.

The Nostalgia is also palpable and surprisingly well executed, giving you goose bumps and not bombarding you with every single reference they can think of.

The Visual effects and practical effects (yes they actually have sets in this film) are of high quality and really immerse you in this universe, with its new additions and its familiar ones.

The set pieces in the film are exceedingly exciting to watch, especially the lightsaber battle at they end. The fighting is certainly grittier and faster paced, but luckily not stepping into the silly speed domain of Yoda/Dooka fights.

The overall pace of the film is incredibly executed well, picking up at the exact right moments and slowing for others, and with the film starting off with a kickass scene and still giving us time to get to know the characters quickly.

The humour in TFA is actually a very nice addition to the film, actually genuinely bringing laughs at times (one scene with BB-8 bringing out many laughs), although at some times the humour seems a little out of context with the Star Wars universe, but it is still ultimately enjoyable.

The surprises the film brings also are actually pretty well done also and work effectively, even when you can kind of see them coming, they’re all done well, despite all the speculation beforehand.

The Story also has a very dark tone, similar to Episode 5 which is great, and balances it great between the comedy and lighter moments of the film.

I also loved the Hierarchy in which the First Order was made, not making Kylo Ren seem fully powerful and being treated the way he probably should be for how volatile he is.

The film is actually an incredible set up for future episodes and ends perfectly and conclusively which makes you hyped for the next episode.

UNSURE’S.

To be straight up, the story is so close to being the same as the original trilogy’s but there is still enough kind of layers added onto this films that it kind of gets away with it, but to be honest you don’t care too much as the execution of the film is great, but it is noticeable.

This is something that I found a lot of people didn’t agree with me, but I thought Daisy Ridley started off a little rusty. Her line deliveries felt very stale and something about her demeanour on screen came across a little annoying. Despite this she does improve through the running time and by the end I found her a likeable character, but I still preferred Finn (Boyega). However, chemistry between the two is good and feels pretty genuine.

CON’S.

Sadly, I found that Oscar Isaac’s Poe Dameron was terribly underused, as he seemed like an awesome character and Isaac put up a good performance as we know he’s a good actor, and so we certainly wish we could see more of him.

Captain Phasma who was hyped up quite a bit prior to the release was also horrendously underused, even more so than Poe, and literally only appears at the start and at a rather insignificant part of the film later on, which makes her just feel like a creation made for selling toys.

Lastly, my final complaint (out of a surprising few) is the scene just after Han Solo is introduced again. The scene include these aliens that I can’t remember the name of (Ranthids?) and a bunch of cannon fodder for them that arrive just on time that just seemed forced and added to try have another action sequence in it, and I wasn’t too sure about the design of the alien either.

Overall, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a resounding success with a few minor blips that hardly detract from the experience of it. It sets up brilliantly for the new trilogy and showcases an incredible cast of actors with a brilliant amount of action. Star Wars is back, and this one has a high midichl--- naaah just kidding, f**k that, the force is just motherf**king strong in this one.

8.