I’ve seen it!
SO now I thought I’d share my thoughts, and I promise not to spoil it for those of you who haven’t yet.
Is it a great film?
It’s a good film, riveting enough that I didn’t notice time passing (always a good indicator), though for me it fell short of being great.
Why?
Because the bottom line is, The Force Awakens is an extremely good remake of A New Hope.
I can’t blame Lucas for it – he’s taken all that was great about the original film and done it again. Same starting point with just a few minor adjustments: the galaxy is now nominally ruled by the Republic, but the military force of the First Order – which looks no different at all from the old Empire (white clad stormtroopers, officers in black, a masked user of the dark side, etc. etc.) – thinks its about time to take over, and the good old revolutionaries are still out there, fighting against impossible odds – sound familiar?
Although we have new central characters, most of the old guard are still there. The plot is really no different, nor are many of the key scenes (including the cantina – yay!), which are so faithfully recreated, they impart a sense of deja vu.
The First Order are hunting a droid carrying a vital message, there’s a central character discovering a previously unknown ability to harness the force, and the death of a major player. Again, familiar anyone?
Does this spoil it? Well, not really, if you’re looking for pure entertainment, although I would have appreciated a few more surprises.
The best part?
The humour! There are some laugh aloud moments, alongside many small smiles.
The villain has major anger management issues, which leads to some laughs, and some of the banter is just terrific fun.
The general dialogue is considerably better than the somewhat strained stuff in Episodes 1 – 3. And better yet – despite rumours, Jar Jar Binks isn’t in it! (sorry if that’s a spoiler – hopefully a welcome one). Oh, and C3PO is limited to a small number of scenes, so his annoying gaffes aren’t too over-powering this time around.
Oddities
Carrie Fisher seems to have lost the use of her jaws – she speaks through her teeth without moving her mouth – just plain weird.
And the new villain, who has a rather shocking identity, has the most bouffant hair I’ve seen outside of a movie set in the 70s – what’s that all about? He looks like a young Professor Snape with big hair. How do they get it all under his helmet???
Would I see it again?
Undoubtedly, though I won’t be dashing back to see it like, oh, the fifteen times I saw the original. I’ll probably wait for the DVD.
Any of you seen it yet? What did you think?
deborahjay 
I agree with your parallels to A New Hope, but George Lucas had little to do with the making of this movie. He has a writing credit simply because he created many of the characters, and the background/history of the new movie draws from the previous ones that he wrote and directed.
Here’s a pretty good article on the subject. http://www.ew.com/article/2015/11/20/george-lucas-star-wars-force-awakens-breakup
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Thanks for sharing that Blake, that makes an ‘Aha!’ moment for me – now I understand what happened. And the Disney influence becomes clear…
Sad, as I was looking forward to the rest of George Lucas’s story. Back when the original came out I was deeply into the fan circles, and it was general knowledge that he’d mapped out all 9 films even back then.
Sigh. Now we shall never know what he intended 😦
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Your reviews are always top notch Deb. Admittedly, I’ve never been a Star Wars fan, but I know most of the world is lol, and so I’m happy to share your wonderful reviews! 🙂
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Thanks Deb. Yes, I suspect you are in a minority with this one, but hey, it’s just as well we are all different!
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Something for everyone, no shortage of books, lol. 😉
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LOL! Yesterday was the first opportunity for the whole (extended) family to go and see TFA together, though of course Jessica has watched it already. In the car on the way back we were going through the cast and had *exactly* the same reaction to the facial reveal of the baddie – if they do a prequel he must be cast as a younger Professor Snape.
We all liked it and we’re pretty much in tune with your views.
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Ha, that’s what we said!
You must be very proud, having a rebel pilot in your family 😉
BTW, has she mastered the double bull whip now? So much looking forward to the next series of GOT.
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Jessica has another part in a different TV series to film in January (I’ll tell you when I can), then she’ll be back on the GoT set. She has mastered the double whip, but she’s at the mercy of script writers and the cutting floor. I’ll leak what I can!
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😀
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