By Zackary Nichols
Courier Staff Reporter
After more than a decade, I finally had 
the opportunity to watch Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the first film of the new Star Wars sequel trilogy. As I stood in line sipping my hot chocolate, I prayed that the film would live up to the massive amount of hype.
NOTE: Spoilers about the plot and characters are included after the read more.
The film’s plot takes place thirty years after the the events of Return of the Jedi. After the fall of the Empire, Luke Skywalker attempt to train a new generation of Jedi. Unfortunately, one of Skywalker’s apprentices, Kylo Ren, was seduced by the dark side of the force. Kylo Ren murdered the other Padawans and joined the First Order, a splinter of the Old Empire. In his shame and despair, Skywalker exiled himself and hasn’t been seen since.
Decades later, the First Order is at war with the Rebellion, now known as the Resistance, backed by the now restored Republic for control of the galaxy. The Resistance wants to find Skywalker so that he can train more Jedi and help to defeat the First Order. The First Order wants to eliminate that threat and put an end to the Jedi Order once and for all.
In short, the film was well worth the wait. The Force Awakens had the perfect blend of action and story, as well as a good amount of call backs to the original trilogy that fans are bound to love.
The Force Awakens introduces us to three new new Protagonists, Poe Dameron, Rey, and Finn.
Poe Dameron is “the best freaking pilot in the galaxy.” A Resistance Soldier, Poe is on a mission to find and deliver a map on the desert planet Jakku to the Resistance before the New Order finds it. This map is no ordinary map. This is a map leading directly to Luke Skywalker. Unfortunately, moments after acquiring the map, the First Order attacks. In desperation, Dameron puts the map inside of BB-8, an updated R2-D2, and tells him to escape before he is captured.
Dameron obtains the least amount of character development of the new protagonists and in turn is slightly one dimensional, although he does have a nice brotherly bond with Finn. Hopefully Damerons character is expanded upon in episode eight.
BB-8 flees west for days, before being captured by a scavenger. A young scavenger girl, Rey, comes to his rescue before he’s looted for parts. Rey was abandoned by her parents on Jakku when she was five years old. Still waiting, in vain, for their return, Rey has survived for years on Jakku as a smuggler living in a fallen AT-AT. With Finn, as well as Han Solo and Chewbacca, Rey is thrown right in the middle of the war.
Rey is my personal favorite of the new protagonists. Rey shares many similarities with both Luke and Anakin Skywalker in that all three characters lived hard lives on desert planets, dreaming of the worlds beyond the stars before being thrust into a galactic war. She is smart, strong, and self-sufficient. When Rey is captured by the New Order, she doesn’t give up hope. Instead she discovers that she is strong with the Force, mind tricks a stormtrooper into releasing her, and escapes.
Later, in the climactic battle of the film, Rey defeats an injured Kylo Ren in a lightsaber duel. That’s already an impressive feat itself, but keep in mind that that was the first time Rey had even held a lightsaber in her life. Rey also seems to match Han Solo’s knowledge of repairing and piloting starships, fighting off multiple TIE fighter during one sequence. This girl is definitely not a damsel in distress. Rey is the best heroine in film in a long time, an excellent role model of intelligence and strength for young women everywhere.
Finn, formerly First Order Stormtrooper FN-2187, is horrified at the atrocities the First Order is committing. After Dameron is captured, Finn decides to rebel against the First Order, help Dameron escape, and join the resistance. During their escape, Finn and Dameron’s stolen TIE fighter is shot down and crash lands on Jakku. With Dameron missing, Finn hikes towards the nearest civilization. Eventually he encounters Rey in a fight with three alien smugglers. Finn wants to help, but before he can Rey has already single handedly knocked out all of her attackers. Hostile towards Finn at first, Rey and Finn clearly have some sort of feelings towards each other. Later, the First Order attacks and Rey and Finn have to escape by stealing a very special spaceship, The Millennium Falcon.
Finn is an interesting character. He has a compelling character arc when it comes to his heel-face turn, although that does seem rushed. I would’ve liked to see Finn as a stormtrooper for a little longer before he rebelled. Otherwise Finn is pretty solid character. His chemistry with Rey didn’t seem forced or rushed and his character arc felt pretty realistic.
All of the main characters from the original series: Han Solo, Chewbacca, Princess Leia; now General Leia, Luke Skywalker, C-3PO, and R2D2, make appearances. The only exception being Lando Calrissian Any fan of the original Star Wars movies are sure to love this movie.
One complaint I do have about this movie is the main antagonist, Kylo Ren. During the middle of the film Kylo Ren removes his mask at the request of a captured Rey. He simply looks too clean. I expect the Sith to be scarred or horribly burned, or at least dirty. Instead underneath the mask, Kylo is just your average teenager or young adult. Later, we learn that the reason for his dark get-up is that Kylo Ren is a huge fan of Darth Vader, and wants to extend his legacy.
Also another thing about Kylo Ren that confused me was his skill level. During the first battle of the film, he is set up to be an extremely powerful Sith Lord, able to stop an incoming blaster rifle charge in mid air for minutes on end with minimal effort. But towards the end of the movie, he is wounded in a lightsaber battle with Finn, a stormtrooper with very little, if any, knowledge of the force and no lightsaber training, and is defeated by Rey, who has discovered her powerful connection with the force maybe an hour before the battle. Although he still hasn’t finished his training yet, so it’s possible that in the next movie he’ll be a bigger threat than before.
*THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS THE MAIN SPOILER FOR THIS FILM*
My main point of critique was the death of Han Solo at the hands of Kylo Ren who is revealed to be Ben Solo, the son of Han and Leia. While the scene was emotional and well acted, it was highly predicable. The scene took place in a setting that was strikingly similar to the “I am your father” scene in The Empire Strikes Back. As Han walked slowly towards his son, trying to bring him back to the Light Side, the entire theatre knew that Kylo would kill him. The predictability did hurt the scene slightly, but nevertheless the scene was still good.
Overall the movie was amazing. It obviously blows all of the prequels out of the water and, in my opinion, might very well match or even beat some of the originals.
The action sequences were great. I noticed that the film placed more emphasis on starship battles rather than lightsaber duels. Even though I’m a big fan of lightsaber battles, but this film pulled off the space battles very well. The lightsaber battles were good, It felt like a sword fight, rather than two people swinging around glow sticks in blurry, fast cut, action shots.
The casting choices were very refreshing. Historically, the Star Wars movies have had a cast of all white men, except for Leia Ortega (Carrie Fisher), Lando Calrissian (played by Billy Dee Williams), the Voice of Darth Vader (James Earl Jones) and Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson).
The Force Awakens cast is much more balanced, the most obvious person being Finn, played by London-born Nigerian John Boyega. Others new multicultural and female characters include X-Wing pilot Jessika Pava (played by Chinese-English actress Jessica Henwick), The Yoda-like Maz Kanata (Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o), the first confirmed female stormtrooper to appear the films, Captain Phasma (played by Gwendoline Christie), and of course Rey (played by Daisy Ridley).
The story was believable and well written, a common complaint of the prequels and even some parts of the originals, and JJ Abrams direction allows old fans to feel nostalgic without new fans feeling lost. But the series doesn’t dwell on the past, creating many new personalities that we will all come to know and love. The Force Awakens is sure to bring many new, young fans into the Star Wars universe.
I give this movie a 9/10, this is definitely a must-see whether you’re a Star Wars veteran or completely new to the franchise. This film is a wonderful start to the new trilogy.
