Not exactly a sequel when it's so familiar to a new hope.

Rating: 6/10 (26 October 2016)

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When I heard that Disney had bought the rights to the Star Wars franchise and there were plans for episode 7,8 and 9 I was disappointed, I mean lets all remember the disappointment we felt when George Lucas made episodes 1-3. If there was anything to make those films bad it was the introduction of Jar Jar Binks, then again George Lucas did need to create someone dim witted for the Senator Palpatine to trick into giving him all the powers of the senate to create the First Galactic Empire, anyway I'm getting off topic I do just like a rant about that bloody Jar Jar Binks. I was disappointed about the decision to make 7,8 and 9 until I learned that JJ Abrams was on board for episode 7, we have all seen what he done with the Star Trek reboot.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens did tend to disappoint though, it was more of a reboot of A New Hope than it was a sequel, there were just too many similarities, for example the star destroyer that was just a bigger version of the death star, a robot with something both sides want, storm troopers searching a village and killing everyone, Kylo Ren being similar to Vader. I was disappointed with the story line that could have been so much better if it didn't go so similar to A New Hope, one thing that could have made it better was maybe mentioning that Jar Jar Binks was no longer with us just to make sure he doesn't make an appearance.
Having said I was disappointed with the story line I did still enjoy the film, it revolves around finding Luke Skywalker who hasn't been seen since one of his apprentices turned bad and killed all his Padawan learners, and blaming himself he left, there is a map that leads to him though and that's where the movie begins. A young pilot Po Dameron (Oscar Issac) receives the map from an old man on a settlement village, which then gets invaded by storm troopers, Po gives the map to his trusted sidekick BB-8, (who everyone seems to love, my fiancé included), Storm troopers destroy his ship and BB-8 escapes, this is when Kylo makes his first appearance, having not found the map he orders the whole village murdered and takes Po. Only one of the storm troopers doesn't follow orders.
Kylo Ren gets the information out of Po regarding the droid and then comes the storm trooper Fin to rescue him, similarities to episode 4.
Now its time to introduce Rey (Daisey Ridley), a scavenger who is good with droids and mechanical parts and can fly a ship (Anakin and Luke), she rescues BB-8 who has been taken by another scavenger and she takes him with her, the droid carrying vital information on the whereabouts of Luke Skywalker, again similarities to episode 4.
The First Order, the new version of the empire, are looking for the droid and send storm troopers down after it only to fail, Rey gets into a little bother with people trying to steal the droid, she manages to fight them off then the droid notices Fin wearing Po Damersons jacket, which he took after there ship crashed and he is presumed dead, after a brief talk they are chased by storm troopers and they manage to escape on an all too familiar ship.
They escape on the ship only to be captured by the ships original owner, the one and only Han Solo and they become friends, as expected though everything eventually goes wrong and Rey is captured, not before she has an encounter with Luke and Anakins lightsaber and has a vision. The rescue is on to save Reay and destroy the Star Destroyer, having got BB-8 back to the rebellions camp they find out the map is incomplete, no shock there.
With a plan to destroy the Star destroyer and save Rey, Han Chewbacca and Fin set off, Rey on the other hand is being tortured by Kylo Ren, who is getting nowhere as she can use the force without any training necessary. She manages to escape by using mind control on a storm trooper and eventually bump into Han, Fin and Chewy. For anyone who hasn't seen this I wont say what happens next but as you would expect the Star Destroyer is destroyed.
Once it is all over we find out that R2D2 has the missing piece of the map and Rey sets off to find Luke, we do get to see Luke and all I can hope for in the next film is, I hope he isn't still a whiney little brat as he does look like an impressive Jedi Master, maybe he will take after the comics and be Grand Master Jedi.
Now to look forward to Rogue One when it comes out.