A New Hope for a New Trilogy

Rating: 7/10 (20 January 2016)

The first installment in the new Star Wars trilogy is certainly a lot of fun. It brings to the table some very impressive visuals, some excellent moments, and, in my opinion, some of the most well written and well-acted characters in the history of the franchise. Overall, there is really one glaring issue I have with the film, and that's its usage of backtracking and fan-service. It's obvious that J.J. Abrams wanted to bring back the glory and the feel of the original trilogy. Unfortunately, without giving anything away plot-wise, the story re- packages similar locations, plot-points, and moments from past films, especially Episode IV. If there was something I appreciated about the second trilogy (Episodes I-III), it's that it tried to expand the universe into new locations and situations. Much of this new episode simply feels too similar to the old films to the point where it gets to feeling unoriginal. Still, Episode VII is a good starting point, and I am very interested to see where the next installments go.