In Retrospect: The Force Awakens

Welcome to my new series, where I look back at films that I reviewed while in theaters and now give further reviews now that they are out on video. With that let us look back on The Force Awakens!

Well the movies been out on video for about 3 weeks so here we go. Nothing that I said in my original review of The Force Awakens has changed. I stand by every word I said, but now is the chance to delve more into it. The film still rocks and I still love it! And I can't wait to see Rogue One this December. But back to the present film at hand, I can understand why they took plot elements from Episode IV for this film. They did it to reassure fans that this is not going to be like the prequels and will be truer to the original trilogy. With a familiar and still good plot with great twists to the original idea, original cast members with all new amazing characters, outstanding practical and special effects, and a true succesor to the Original Trilogy. The plot as I stated is similar to Episode IV, with a map leading to the last Jedi in the galaxy Luke Skywalker being hunted by The First Order, a remnant of The Empire headed by Kylo Ren. The plans are placed in a droid and is soon discovered by a scavenger named Rey who takes the droid in her care, and with the help of a AWOL stormtrooper nqmed Finn tries to get the droid back to The Resistance (why they changed it from Rebels I have no idea.) while meeting old friends, new threats, and trying to retain peace in the galaxy. Pretty familiar right? Well a bunch of other stuff happens, that really drives this film from just another carbonite copy of A New Hope. Different but similar settings which feel right at home in the Star Wars universe, outstanding action scenes with the most gritty and realistic lightsaber duel ever commited to film, good dialogue, excellent use of humor, and it's still just so cool knowing Star Wars is back. And what a shock, I have very few issues with the movie! One, I hate that they gave away such a big twist so early in the film, I wish they waited until a more pivotal scene and built more mystery around it. Two, kinda wasted the Captain Phasma character but we should see her in future films. Third, I can't believe they didn't give Mark Hamill one line of dialogue. Ironic since he hasn't appeared in a live action film in quite sometime, and mostly does voice acting work in animated shows or video games. So you hear him but never see him in the cartoons or video games, and then you finally see him in this movie but you never hear him. It's almost too funny to be real. But nevertheless I enjoyed the film, and I caught every damn reference to the Original Trilogy in this film, from the training orb to the substitute cave scene on Dagobah. God I love being an absolute nerd...