A Masterpiece That Breathed New Life Into This Franchise

Rating: 10/10 (15 December 2016)

Seeing Star Wars The Force Awakens at midnight one year ago today is the greatest cinema experience I've ever had in my life, the theatres were full to the brim and everyone was dressed up but I was still cautiously optimistic but I was blown away by an incredible movie. I adored this movie, I think it's better than A New Hope and almost on Par with The Empire Strikes Back and Return of The Jedi. This film understands that the most vital part of A Star Wars movie is the characters, we are given the time to care and love these new characters because they're developed perfectly, there character progression felt natural and they fit right in with the rest of the veterans. Kylo aren't was an amazing villain, mainly because he isn't completely a bad guy yet but instead a well rounded and complex character struggling with the overwhelming odds he faces. Of course since this is a Star Wars film the special effects are perfect and fit in just right with the rest of the environment. The performances are all fantastic, Daisy Ridley fit right into this role and was extremely likable, John Boyega was not only hilarious but also had a real complexity to him as a character and let us see things from a stormtroopers perspective. Harrison Ford came right back into Han Solo perfectly, he had amazing chemistry with the other characters and was just great to see him back again with a whole new layer of characterisation added to him. Back I really have to be honest the greatest performance in this film was Adam Driver, he gave an amazing performance that rides just the right Lin between fragile and hostile and he made Kylo Ren a much better character to watch and was in my opinion worthy of an Oscar nomination. This film unlike the prequels understands that this film is part of a trilogy, so we are left hanging on certain things and left to wonder for a while, which in the long run will make the whole trilogy more satisfying. JJ Abrams was the perfect choice to direct this film, he paced this film quickly while occasionally slowing down to develop the characters more, he made sure that this film had the greatest Lightsaber battles in all the franchise.
Now I Know that the common complaint with this film is its similarities to A New Hope but in this case it did work for the narrative and reintroducing us into the world, we got amazing new characters with great interaction with the old and makes me desperate to see the rest of this trilogy while wondering if it'll be able to live up to this.
100%/A+