Feels More Canon

Rating: 10/10 (6 January 2016)

Before I talk about the movie, I'd like to talk about canon-related material. A lot of times if we see sequels to a movie, or sometimes like Star Wars they do prequels. A lot of times even while those stories might fit in with the original story, there are slight inconsistencies and plot holes. A small example of that is in the first Home Alone Kevin is supposed to be 8, and in the second one which is supposed to take place a year later, he says he's 10.
Now, going on with story lines even though this might be off topic, let me talk about another long series which I've grown up watching and it's DragonBall Z. People who watch that series knows that it consists of DragonBall, DragonBall Z, DragonBall G.T., movies as part of the series, and recently DragonBall Super in Japan. When we think of the series as a whole we probably think of DragonBall Z. DragonBall Z came out first in America, just like how Star Wars started with episodes 4-6 instead of 1-3. I read that the reason they started showing episodes of DragonBall Z in America before DragonBall is because they felt like the latter series would attract more viewers. With the success of DragonBall Z, they brought over DragonBall.
Now, anybody who is a fan of the series knows there are inconsistencies from prior episodes that either seem forgotten or no longer cared about. A few examples is DragonBall is canon to DragonBall Z. DragonBall G.T. is non-canon and while some of us might consider it part of the original storyline, it wasn't quite as good and popular and even the writer of DragonBall, Toriyama doesn't consider it canon. Even in DragonBall there are things that seem forgotten, like Launch who is a main character in DragonBall and only in filler in DragonBall Z. The tails and giant apes/oozarus almost seem forgotten after the Saiyan Saga. Also, with the numerous power ups, we'd think the characters should easily destroy Earth by any move they make in the latter episodes. A few others is the Red Ribbon Army was portrayed differently in the Trunks, Androids, and Cell Saga than in DragonBall. Also after the Frieza Saga, it seemed harder to write new enemies over Frieza and power ups as in Season 4 there were numerous new enemies before finally ending with Cell. I'll conclude by saying there are various movies, while they take us to the series, most of them couldn't take place in the main storyline, even when the main storyline has inconsistencies.
So, sorry to waste your time talking about DragonBall when this is for Star Wars. But, the point I'm making is Star Wars has 7 movies and episodes that came out. I've long since heard of a new Star Wars movie coming out, and originally heard they were planning on having it be a prequel, like Old Republic. Instead, they just wrote an Episode 7.
With the 7 Star Wars movies that have come out, there have also been numerous Star Wars books that have come out, Star Wars video games, and Star Wars T.V. shows. With all those stories, fans of the movies might notice some inconsistencies with other stories and wonder if they're supposed to be Canon but they still take us to, "A Long Time Ago In A Galaxy Far Far Away." Just like how the movies in DragonBall Z work even if they're not part of the main storyline.
The reason I've brought this up, is because it makes sense to bring this up with such a big storyline. When we think of Star Wars, a lot of us probably think more of the characters from episodes 4-6 rather then 1-3. A lot of people are unhappy with the Star Wars prequels and notice inconsistencies. Some people even wonder if they should watch the Star Wars episodes in chronological order? I'll tell you, I've done that and episodes 1-3 will feel canon to each other, but not so canon to episodes 4-6.
This movie feels more canon to the later Star Wars episodes than the first trilogy will seem canon to the second, even though more time has probably passed from episodes 6 to 7 than episodes 3 to 4. While I was in the movie theater, as I actually saw this on a Disney cruise. The audience members clapped every time we saw characters and references to the original Star Wars movies, including a scene we saw in the trailer seeing Darth Vader's burnt mask.
I went into the movie with low expectations feeling that this was going to be an overrated film that makes lots of money continuing the Star Wars series. I also saw lots of your complaints about this being like a rewrite of episode 4 with new characters. It's been a long time since I've seen episode 4, but I did not see it as a rewrite. It felt like more of it's original story. It had great action and was entertaining the whole way through, that I'd give it a 10. It seemed to be faster paced than a lot of the other Star Wars movies, and it's nice to see the characters from the Star Wars movies we remember most, played by the same actors over 30-years later. They still act like the way they did in the original movies. I haven't heard of an episode 8 in the works, but due to the success of this film and where the movie ended there should be an episode 8.
So to briefly summarize what I wrote. I wrote this long review to explain how it feels more canon. I also mentioned how I went in with low expectations, but found this movie so entertaining that I'd definitely recommend it!! I'm excited for an episode 8 after seeing how good this movie was.