Who cares if it's not original? It's brilliant!

Rating: 9/10 (22 December 2015)

A perfect coming together of plot, great characters, well-placed humour, lovingly created settings and, of course, a big dose of nostalgia.
This is the PERFECT adventure movie.
The only thing stopping me giving this a 10/10 is its lack of originality. Whether you view this as delightful homage to the original Star Wars trilogy or boring rehash, there's no denying that The Force Awakens is not breaking new ground.
But that didn't bother me too much.
Because what The Force Awakens does do (and do brilliantly) is seamlessly bring together the finest elements of the previous movies (and indeed other SciFi adventures) into something quite special.
1. The plot. It's a tale of good versus evil, the little guy against the universe, but it also brings through some important threads from the earlier movies and isn't afraid of bold plot twists (no spoilers here).
2. The new characters. Kylo Ren is the worthy successor to Darth Vader - not as iconic (yet) but he comes with a chilling human kind of evil. Then there's Rey, the hero (a female lead - good decision), played by Daisy Ridley who puts in an excellent performance, like an action hero version of Keira Knightley. And BB-8 as the droid sidekick is just as likable as R2-D2. There are others but these were the standouts.
3. The humour. It's not laugh-out-loud funny but there's a healthy scattering of (well-judged) punchlines. Star Wars never took itself too seriously and The Force Awakens gets this spot on.
4. The lovingly created settings. The original movies were notable for creating a fully populated universe of bizarre aliens and intriguing landscapes that weren't CGI-shiny but felt 'real'. The CGI-heavy prequels lost this feeling altogether. The Force Awakens tries to take the best of both - CGI when it will enhance the special effects and costume and models when it'll feel gritty. It does a good job (although the original trilogy still has the edge in this respect).
And finally 5. The nostalgia. Here The Force Awakens is quite rightly shameless in using every possible opportunity to bring back characters, droids, spaceships and even lines of script that we'll recognise from the previous movies. It gives a lovely nostalgic continuity without (in my opinion) taking the limelight from the new characters (... OK, so Han Solo steals some limelight!).
The perfect adventure movie?
My answer is a resounding Yes!