Sars Warts

Rating: 9/10 (6 January 2016)

It's back! And this time there's virtually no cheese, no trade embargoes, no long winded Jedi meetings, and no seizure inducing over-used CGI. I noticed that the plot wasn't anything new, but then I also noticed that I wasn't caring about that.
There's six billion other reviews on here, so let's get down to brass tacks and tell you what was good about this. This is a slightly meaner, more violent Star Wars here, with a rather moody setting with the decaying remnants of the Empire lying about everywhere. Loads of action and weird alien monsters and I felt the three new leads where excellent, especially Rey (compare her transition to Luke's from the first film and it's a lot smoother â€“ she's no whiny teenager). And to think it's all real, too! The older cast do fine too. Chewbacca hasn't aged a day. I was kind of worried about Harrison Ford as he's never been a favourite of mine, but I'm glad to say he's brilliant in this film in the role he's always been best at. Plus Hans got an extra, world-weary dimension to him this time round.
It's probably the best looking of all the Star Wars films too. I'm no fan boy (but loved it as kid) and brought my five year old along (His name is Nimh Numh jnr, but that's just a coincidence). He loved it too, although worryingly his favourite bit was when the Stormtroopers kill everyone in a village.
I thought Mark E Smith from the Fall was very good as Snoke. They didn't even have to use CGI!