Star Wars is headed in the right direction again

Rating: 7/10 (17 June 2017)

Disney taking the Star Wars reigns out of George Lucas's hands is likely the single best thing that could have happened to the franchise after the controversial prequel mess. With the prequels, Lucas managed to take Star Wars about as far away from what make it work in the first place as was possible, destroying many of the great things about the original trilogy in the process. Effectively, Star Wars was dead...Lucas wouldn't have been able to pull off any future films, even if he would have been inclined to do so.
Personally, I was excited when I heard Disney had purchased Lucasfilm and announced plans to make new Star Wars movies. Love em or hate em, if there is one thing Disney knows how to do, it's make successful films. I was even more excited when I heard that Lucas himself had been cut out of the creative loop, the last thing we needed was for him to take us further down the horrible path he chose to take Star Wars with the prequels. After Lucas was dismissed from involvement with the new Star Wars films, I imagine Disney sat down and took a long hard look at what made the original trilogy such a beloved success and the prequels such a criticized mess. Undoubtedly, they didn't want their new franchise to be met with the same overall negativity the prequels received.
The formula they came up with was overly simplistic...Star Wars 1977 worked, so let's mirror it. Episode 7 is essentially a reboot of the original movie at its heart. The story is remarkably similar, and each major character from the original is mirrored by a new character. Even the original characters, in addition to being who they were, also seem to at times mirror other original character roles from Star Wars 1977.
As simplistic as this is, the bottom line is it worked. Episode 8 looks and "feels" like a Star Wars movie, and it's the first one that's been able to pull that off since 1983. The movie has its flaws to be sure, but when put against the prequels, it's superior in almost every aspect. More importantly, it brought back some of the magic to Star Wars that the prequels had effectively snuffed out. No mention of space bugs in your cells that make you strong with the force, no ridiculous prophecy, no distracting fluff and scene bloat, no circus side show of unnecessary characters, dialog and scenes, no uncomfortable and awkward botched romance side story....and no Jar Jar Binks or his equivalent.
Instead you have a well paced and clear story. Interesting characters you can connect with on an emotional level. Special effects that dazzle you but don't overwhelm you or take center stage. You have what made Star Wars...well, Star Wars.
Taking my young son on it to opening night left me with this thought in my head....that movie experience was, for him, as close as he was going to get to the same experience I had as a child going to see Star Wars in the theater for the first time. And that, in and of itself, made this movie a success in my eyes