Better than "The Force Awakens"...

Rating: 9/10 (31 December 2016)

Spoiler Alert!
Star Wars has been my life since I was 5 years old and this is the "New Hope" I've been waiting for. This isn't JJ Abrams/Disney "Star Wars" and it isn't the poor interpretation of it as done by Lucas in the prequel trilogy. This is Star Wars as it should be. This is Star Wars as it should have been. This is the Star Wars we called out to the force for when we collectively clamored in horror when Jar Jar Binks appeared in Episode One. The script could have been written by a hardcore Star Wars cosplay fan. Yes, it's all fan service. But fan service never looked this good. I didn't expect to be so invested in characters like the Erso's and Captain Captain Andor and even K-2SO! People audibly gasped in the theater when the DROID died a dramatic death! And that huge set-piece battle with the AT- AT's and the Tie Fighters and the space cruisers, rebel troops, Storm troopers and the kitchen sink thrown in there? That's how we used to play Star Wars when we were kids. We'd just throw all of our action figures together and have these huge battles to secure the Death Star plans (or whatever) sometimes literally in the kitchen sink! Spoiler: All the protagonists die in the end in an ending that's more Tarantino than Disney! And the CGI looked great. Of course you could tell it wasn't really Peter Cushing but he's been dead for more than 20 years and he's in the film. Give them some credit for that! The only thing that took me out of the moment was Vader telling a joke. "Don't choke on your own aspirations, Krennick". Vader doesn't do jokes. Sarcasm yes, not jokes. And the ending freaked me out but that's because Fisher died the same day I saw the movie.
If you're a straggler, you need to see this damn movie right now!