I've got a good feeling about this

Rating: 9/10 (1 January 2016)

Everybody knows it. Everybody loves it. The cast, the music, the sounds, the effects, its pure love. STAR WARS. Arguably the most iconic franchise of all time is back and wow, its back with a bang.
Now, going in this film you have to understand that Star Wars is something so iconic and well-known, everybody has his own vision how a movie from this caliber should look like. So, the expectations from the fans are high. Almost too high. But, unlike a lot of other people, I always had confidence in J.J Abrams directorial ability. I consider his Star Trek movies to be one of the best reboots ever, maybe because I was never a big Star Trek fan, but the guy knows how to revive a dead franchise. I love, love, love Super 8, a classic throwback to the Spielberg era of film-making. Mission Impossible 3 was also a great entry in the Mission Impossible franchise. What I love about his direction is that it's always moving, there never seems to be a moment of wasted time. The flow is always "correct", he engages you in what is happening on screen but at the same time gives you those quiet moments where we get to relax for a few minutes before it goes back to mayhem. And when mayhem happens, its always directed well and with a lot of nice choices of shots. There is no quick cutting, no shaky cam but instead a nice blend of wide shots that show you the action and not cut away from it. His direction is very close to the one of Steven Spielberg and Abrams even admitted that he's a huge inspiration.
I was relieved to see all those aspects in The Force Awakens. It has the pacing of the original trilogy, which is exactly how it should be. There is no time wasted on overlong and irritating exposition like in the prequels as it is presented to us more visually (there is a nice moment of Reys back story for example).
The film looks incredible. And with incredible I mean that it looks like a real film. Not like a video game. The practical effects really stand out here, giving the audience something we haven't seen in a while, creature effects that really involve the actors to interact with it and when they do, it works, not surprisingly, very well. Of course you can't go without CGI nowadays, which is used in great effect here. However, if there is one thing that bothered me about it, its the two CG characters, Supreme Leader Snoke and Maz Kanata. They really stand out from the rest, just because almost every other character is done practically. Now, that doesn't mean the CG on them is bad, quite the contrary but they seemed to not really fit into the world presented on screen which relied more on practical effects. Especially Snoke felt like something out of the Hobbit films. He could have easily been created with make-up. Maz on the other hand didn't bother me that much, simply because the acting from Lupita Nyong'o was very believable. Still, the CG was noticeable and as a fan, I have to point that out.
Now, what about the new characters? Well, I can't wait to spend more time with them. My god, the grin I had on my face just seeing Rey and Finn interact. These two just have that charisma needed in a Star Wars film, especially when we are going to see two more movies with them as our title heroes. There was not one scene where I thought they over acted or didn't hit the right note. One movie was enough and I cared more about them than with any of the characters of the prequels. Yes, I just went that route. Simply said, the acting in this is good. In fact, I would say its perfect. Well, Carrie Fisher is a bit choppy at times in her line deliverance probably because she hasn't done a lot in the past few years that demanded her to act but that's really only a minor flaw.
What a lot of people seem to be angry about are the parallels with A New Hope. I'm actually very annoyed at the current state of Hollywood rehashing ideas remaking movies that were perfectly fine anyway, however in the case of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, it really didn't seem to bother me....at all. I would have been extremely angry if the movie was in a whole poorly made but that just wasn't the case. The writers didn't steal the ideas, especially since Lawrence Kasdan was one of the original writers for the original Trilogy, so I don't see it as "stealing" or "rehashing". Its simply a love letter, a tribute to the old movies. Besides, the film gives us too much new stuff to really consider it a remake. And to further argument my standpoint, the film was executed well and with enough care for me to consider it original. The story in Star Wars was never really the main selling point to me anyways. It was rather a backdrop for our characters to evolve, so we, the audience, connect with them, feel for them and want to learn more about them. Yes, story is the none plus ultra for every medium, but, in a visual medium like film, there are other aspects that make it good. So, while you might not think the story is original (which blockbuster is nowadays, anyway?) the rest is.
So, while at first glance it might seem as "copying", really think about it and think if it took away from the enjoyment.
Well, for me it didn't. And I can't wait too see what this galaxy far far away has to offer next.