Star Wars is back!

Rating: 9/10 (18 December 2015)

I'm going to try and keep this short and sweet without spoiling anything important.
I grew up loving the Star Wars franchise (even the prequels when I was little) obviously the prequels weren't good movies. And there was a LOT of skepticism going into this. But rest assured! Star Wars: The Force Awakens, is a great movie! Yes it had a few flaws but overall nothing big enough to really ruin the story for me.
To start off, the visual effects and use of practical sets/props work brilliantly. (There's only one scene in the film where CGI seemed a little too out of place in my opinion, but luckily that didn't last very long)
The new characters are excellent, with performances so outstanding from John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac and Adam Driver.
I was very skeptical about how well the old cast would work in this, but they turned out great! Han Solo is back! And the chemistry between Solo and Leia brought back the feels without feeling forced. These are the same characters we know and love from the originals, and their relationship seemed just as real as it did back then.
Another thing to mention. A lot of people (including myself) were worried if the Villain 'Kylo Ren' would be a cheap rip off of Darth Vader. But he actually was his own character. He turned out very different to how I imagined he would. And believe me I had dreams about this guy (not creepy at all) and he was like nothing I imagined. He had emotion, he wasn't just a typical bad guy. It's hard to say without spoiling, but there's one scene in this film where you really begin to understand Kylo a lot more. Adam Drivers performance as Kylo Ren was superb and I can't wait to see more of him in episode 8.
My only complaint would be that this film leans heavily on the original trilogy at times. You will notice things that you've seem before, and that's not really a bad thing!The only reason I'm bringing it up, is because it was one of the first things I really noticed when watching. But trust me it doesn't make the film any less enjoyable. This is the first film of the new trilogy, and this is just reintroducing us to the galaxy far, far away. And it did an excellent job doing that.
"This will begin to make things right"
9/10
(I had to watch this 2 times in order to figure out where I would rank it in my top 3...
1. ESB 2. TFA 3. ROTJ)