After a week or so wait I finally got around to seeing Star Wars: The Force Awakens with my best buddy. It was great enjoying the Star Wars experience on the big screen again. After giving myself a few days to process the movie I have a few simple thoughts and takeaways from the movie itself and the experience as a whole.
- This film was clearly a rewrite/reimagining/reboot of the original Star Wars: A New Hope. The Force Awakens felt like a movie introducing its franchise to a whole new age group who never experienced the original trilogy.
- I'm not a prequel hater but The Force Awakens felt like a JJ Abrams apology, on behalf of George Lucas, for the previous trilogy that I felt for the most part was subpar.
- I can't recall in the previous six movies ever seeing a Stormtrooper bleed. I'm 37 years old and it was shocking to see a handprint of blood streak down the helmet of Finn when his fellow Stormtrooper was killed in battle. It gave the Stormtrooper a human element. For the longest time growing up and watching Star Wars I never really understood what a Stormtrooper was. Was he human, a droid, a clone? I didn't know what to think when first watching but it added a great element of humanism to the First Order.
- Rey is such an amazing character. My initial thoughts when leaving the theater was probably the same as most geeks. Rey is either Luke's daughter or his sister.
- Maz Kanata felt out of place in The Force Awakens. I feel like this was a character ripped right out of the prequels.
This was such a fun moviegoing experience. The audience was into it and I found it really wonderful every time an old friend was introduced into the movie, they received a round of applause.
I picked this for my movie of 2015.
