Passionate Homage

Rating: Null/10 (18 December 2015)

Continuing the Star Wars saga can be both an exciting and tough decision. Aside of the fans' disappointment from the prequels, it is a serious task to make a new trilogy as good or even better than the original. And what The Force Awakens chose is to start with sheer nostalgia. The result of the new story is rather more intriguing than it is great. But the greatest feat of the whole is how downright fun it is. Whether you're a Star Wars fan or not, you'll just find this as an ultimately entertaining movie. And since this is only the first movie of this reborn franchise, it is already pretty good to what it is.
Before we get to the stuff we loved, there are few problems that we should point out (hopefully, these would be nitpicks if the sequel payed off with better answers.) Mainly is the fact that most of these characters feel like a retread of the original. Rey might as well be Luke, BB-8 is definitely Artoo, Poe Dameron is Han Solo in the making and Han Solo is Ben Kenowbi. Gee, I wonder what equivalent Kylo Ren, Hux and Snoke are supposed to be. The only one who doesn't seem to have his own match is Finn, who was a Storm Trooper found awareness and now seeking for some sort of redemption. But instead of doing exactly everything all over again, it takes these elements to challenging, often mysterious, twists. The thematic focus of this franchise, while it does have a light and dark side, is basically having these characters face their complex choices. The movie doesn't go deeper to that, at least not yet. But it's still all about introduction.
And as an introduction, it's just an adventurous blast. The movie never really hesitates its plot. It just keeps moving, having our heroes being chase from a number of enemies, cherishing every place and character they stop into and that's the type of fun we were missing in the last films. The fan service doesn't stop there, even the craft follows its own nostalgia. There's a mix between CG and practical effects and the result is just magnificent. The love for the franchise is immediately defined from this homage of filmmaking. The action is also downright exciting, specifically the Millennium Falcon chase and a lightsaber fight with a storm trooper.
As for the acting: Daisy Ridley fares better physically, where we see this protagonist's sense of danger and adventure from her expressions and action. John Boyega brings the energy and charisma as one of the lead heroes. Harrison Ford bounces perfectly with these two kids. Adam Driver gives compelling angst as Kylo Ren. The other villains are being a little campy and that was never bad and actually rather entertaining, anyway. Oscar Isaac and Gwendoline Christie gave enough intrigue from their short roles that we'd hope to see more in the sequels.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the Star Wars everybody always wanted to see in years, maybe not entirely. Yeah, it's basically a series of questions that may be answered to the next one, but if the next movies manage to give us impressive answers and twists, then maybe the flaws here would be easily forgiven. For now, it's still a pretty good movie. The action is enjoyable, the homage is terribly beautiful, the acting is very entertaining. Nothing exactly groundbreaking to it, but the amount of enjoyment around is undeniably tremendous.