Nothing Will Beat The Originals, But The Force Awakens Beats The Prequels.

Rating: 8/10 (23 November 2016)

It's been about 30 years since the Return Of The Jedi and the Battle Of Endor. The Force Awakens when one of the best Rebel fighter pilots, Poe Dameron(Oscar Isaac), visits Lor San Tekka( Max von Sydow) on Jakku. There he is presented with a valuable piece in finding the whereabouts of Luke Skywalker( Mark Hamill). It is a disc like piece to a map, when put together will lead to Luke Skywalker. Poe stores it safely in his BB-8 unit. Once he learns that The New Order will arrive on Jakku, he commands the droid to leave. Luke has gone into hiding ever since he trained a Jedi, that turned to The Dark Side. That Jedi is Kylo Ren( Adam Driver), who is now part of The New Order.
When Ren Lands on Jakku, he has with him his head Stormtrooper, Capt. Phasma ( Gwendoline Christie), and her Stormtrooper patrol. Including FN 2187( John Boyega). Once Kylo learns that BB-8 has the piece leading to Skywalker, he orders the troopers to open fire on every villager. When FN 2187 sees this he is shocked and appalled. Poe Dameron is captured and taken aboard Kylo's ship to Starkiller base on the planet Myvath. Once they arrive, Capt. Phasma catches FN 2187 taking is Stormtrooper helmet off. She commands him to hand over his weapon for inspection. FN 2187 agrees and hands it over, then goes about his business. When he realizes Ren has Poe, he lies to Kylo and says Phasma needs the prisoner. Once he and Poe are face to face, Poe thinks he is with the Resistance, FN 2187 says he is breaking him out. Poe thinks he is with The Resistance, FN 2187 says no. FN has his own reasons for helping Poe and himself. FN 2187 leads him to the landing bay, and they steal a TIE Fighter. When he introduces himself to Poe, Poe says he is going to call him FINN. They escape to Jakku so Poe can get BB-8 back. When they escape they are pursued by TIE fighters, and they eventually crash land on Jakku. When Finn wakes up after the crash, he assumes Poe perished. He begins is journey on Jakku, first trying to get used to the climate, and find some much needed water. Rey a local scavenger is just trying to survive by selling scrap metal from ships that have wrecked. She sells them for food, when she discovers BB 8 following her one day. She tries to get rid of him, but when she finds out they only want the droid for parts, she keeps him. One day BB 8 spots Finn wearing Poe's jacket, that gets the attention of Rey who confronts him. When he explains to her what happens, she thinks he's with the Resistance. He tells her he has to get the droid back the Resistance so the map can be put together in order to find Luke Skywalker. They get reading to leave Jakku in a ship, but it gets destroyed. So they end up taking the Millennium Falcon. The ship Rey says is garbage until it's there only way out.
On Star-killer Base a new Supreme Leader is in charge, Snoke( Andy Serkis). Kylo Ren reports to him, but Kylo is torn between the Darkside and Lightside. Kylo is having outbursts, he has Vaders mask and prays that the Darkside will completely take him over. When he finds out that the droid, Finn, and Rey escaped Jakku, he loses it. His mission is to find Rey, and confront her.
On the Falcon Rey, Finn, and BB 8 realize they are getting boarded by another ship. Before they get boarded a major gas leak happens and they need to stop it. Once it's stopped they realize someone is coming aboard. It's none other than Han Solo( Ford) and Chewy( Peter Meyhew). Once they are aboard Rey and Finn can't believe it. They explain to Solo why they need to get the BB 8 unit back to the Resistance Outpost on . It is holding a piece to the whereabouts of Luke Skywalker. Once the 5 team up they head to Maz's Cantina on Takodara. Maz ( Lupita Nyong'a). Once there strong bonds begin to form with the group. Two spies on each side report to their base that the BB 8 units is their. Rey eventually with Maz's help learns more about Luke and she eventually finds out Finn's true identity before she is captured. When the band of rebels find out the true power of what the Starkiller base can do, they can't believe it. It destroys multiple planets at once. Finn explains how important it is to stop the Starkiller Base for good. They travel to the ice planet of Myvath, they get Rey , but they lose someone along the way. In short the base is destroyed, the map is complete and the journey to find Luke Skywalker is complete.
I don't understand all the hate toward this movie, it isn't that bad. I still believe it is much better than the pre-quels, which had way too much CGI. I also liked the way they included the wreckage from ROTJ's Imperial ship Avenger. It's something hard-core Star Wars fans picked up on right away. To those who haven't seen the film, see it. It is a great followup from ROTJ. I liked it much better than I thought I would, but nothing will beat the originals.
THX, Kris L. CocKayne