The Rebirth of a Saga

Rating: 10/10 (20 July 2016)

Star Wars The name that gives hope, excitement, adrenaline, and so many other emotions for people that love this franchise. Growing up I loved Star Wars it was one of the first movies I got into as a kid(I first saw it when I was about 3-4 years old long after the original 3 had their theatrical run) Luke Skywalker was one of my on screen heroes and Darth Vader one of the most evil bad guys I had ever seen. Lucas for years had been saying he had no intention on making a sequel trilogy and I figured Id take his word for it after all he was getting older and preferred to have other people helm the directors chair(such was the case early on with the prequels but he changed his mind) but then he sold the franchise to Disney and as soon as the purchase was done it was announced a new sequel trilogy was being planned(Not prequels, not in between movies but A SEQUEL TRILOGY) I was excited and damn I couldn't wait! Now it's the end of the year and "Star Wars Episode VII The Force Awakens" has been released and the only thing I can say is I LOVED IT!!!!
Without question if you are a big Star Wars fan then you wont be disappointed, as a fellow fan myself I can say this film is what we've all been waiting for years(a sequel with the original characters). These films are fun and enjoyable and of course there are many parents out there that are looking forward to introducing their children to the new films but the film, as much as I love it; isn't without its flaws. I guess the one thing that people complained about was that the film seems to be just another version of Episode IV A New Hope and indeed I can see why they say this. The film has almost the same formula of the characters trying to find and get a droid to its destination because it has information vital to the resistance and the use of the Starkiller which clearly was the Death Star Revamped and updated to be more powerful and deadlier than the first, but at the same time it was original in its own way. The movie basically made use of Homage which was one of the things I loved about it, its been over 30 years since we saw these particular characters and it was a nice way for fans of the originals to see the homages while showing us new stuff.
One of the themes in Star Wars is temptation, temptation to do the wrong thing(Anakin being tempted and succumbing to the Dark Side but then his son Luke resisting temptation and redeeming his father) but this film did something a bit different and that was Temptation to the Light side, Kylo Ren is on the fence about going back to the good side but doesn't want to and wants to stay part of the dark because he believes its his birth right(there are more reasons than just this of course) so he's dealing with wanting to go back to the light and although this was very briefly touched upon in ROTJ(Vader having some good in him) this addressed it in more depth and emphasized wanting to stay bad rather than go good rather or vice versa. The original films are admired for their special effects, without question one of the reasons the original films look so good is because of the effects they used(mostly practical, puppetry, and even early computer graphics) which gave them an organic feel and made us all believe we were seeing living creatures on the screen; If we watch those films today they still feel like they were made just yesterday like they're not that old(one of the reasons these films are timeless) and The Force Awakens decided to stick to this tradition, rather than use complete CGI(as the prequels did) these used the more practical effects(of course there were still instances of CGI frankly you cant get around it) the use of animatronics and props made this film believable again(as though what we were seeing was really there) that's one thing for sure fans of the original trilogy are going to love.
Star Wars is a saga that millions of people enjoy, it's the classical tale of Good vs. Evil and its mythology is so addicting its just hard not to like it, these films changed cinema and continue to influence the minds of film makers and these newer films are basically the franchise handed to a new generation for us to have a chance to make them for a newer generation and cinema in general. We have new films coming out Star Wars episodes VIII and IX and of course the Anthology films(ill be pretty busy these next couple of years) and I tell you I cant wait to see the next ones.