A fine reboot of the Star Wars franchise.

Rating: 7/10 (27 December 2015)

When it comes to the Star Wars franchise, it's vital to take a step back to see what has been delivered to us. In this case, it's fine swashbuckler with some minor flaws. The temptation here (and I have fallen into it) is to see the characters as transpositions of the original. Rey is Luke, Finn is Han, Kylo is a budding Vader and so on.
The Force Awakens loses nothing of the original trilogy's grandiose scale. Jakku is a desert planet in the vein of Tatooine, the First Order is a reboot of the Empire, sharing its original goals of galactic domination and there are the same cheeky references to the original series as well. Fans that are enamoured with the Star Wars galaxy will be let down as the film has its flaws. Han Solo dies an inglorious death at the hands of his son, but we have the pleasure of seeing Rey grow from a scavenger to a budding Jedi Knight. Finn is a little harder to corner here. He has some great lines but could have used some expository depth outside of "Hey, I'm a former trooper and I'm getting the hell out!" but that will surely come in the rest of the new trilogy.
TFA rewards fans of the original series by showing us Han, Leia, Chewie, C3PO, R2 and finally Luke in a final moment that has all of the mentor-student tableau we've seen before. There isn't a lot of CGI here weighing down the movie, and that aids it a great deal. Should we have expected more? Perhaps. We are left with a tantalizing possible future though. The young padawan ready to face more threats, the unwilling hero trying to find his space, torches being passed from past heroes to new ones. It's by no means perfect, but it's a fine two hours of entertainment, heroism and worth a look or two. If Abrams tightens up the script a little in the next movies, we'll have a great run here as well.