An emotional return to a galaxy far, far away.

Rating: 9/10 (3 January 2016)

After reading a lot of negativity on this site I felt inclined to review this film, I have seen it three times after all.
I can see that a lot of reviewers are correct in saying that it does mirror many, many scenes and themes from the Original Trilogy but the CGI filled, messy and badly written prequels didn't have many parallels with the original trilogy and look how that turned out?
I think fans would be very disappointed if it was barely similar to the fantastic originals. JJ Abrams had an incredibly difficult task and did a very good job. Obviously there are so many questions and thoughts left unanswered but how could all of them be answered in a rather short run time? Also there are two episodes to follow this so all hope isn't lost like many people seem to think.
The opening crawl is fantastic as is the opening scene which is action packed and emotional as it proves how evil The First Order are and how desperate they are to destroy the last Jedi. BB-8 is a worthy addition as well, everything he does in this film is funnier than what Jar Jar Binks did in three!
Poe, Rey and Finn are excellent heroes. When has that been seen before when a storm trooper questions his orders and disobeys them? I thought that whole concept was intriguing, I also loved the idea that one of the main characters is an X-Wing pilot but not similar to Luke. Rey is brilliant, the soundtrack gives you a connection to her in my opinion, especially on the desolate planet Jakku, as a viewer I felt her loneliness and desperation to actually be somebody, she clearly didn't like being a scavenger or the greedy tyrant Unkar Plutt (Simon Pegg). She knew how to defend herself and was a powerful, brave, independent woman, in some aspects similar to Leia. I loved the reveal of the Falcon and how Rey and Finn became closer as the film progressed. Han and Chewbacca were amazing in my opinion, Ford was instantly Solo, he played the character very well, remarkable considering he hadn't for over thirty years. The writing is very good and this film is genuinely funny at times and the jokes aren't as obvious as other popular films of the year. The film isn't the best in the series but certainly exceeds the prequels and it will be interesting to see the deleted scenes. The levels of nostalgia were incredibly high throughout the film and I hope this film is like Episode IV in the sense that it's just the beginning and the following films are more emotional. I have high hopes for the next episode but not so high hopes for Episode IX as it's going to be directed by Colin Trevorrow, the man who directed the diabolical Jurassic World. You can tell that Abrams is a fan of the originals as it has so many parallels but in my opinion not too many. Kylo Ren is a very interesting villain as he has betrayed his family, not just his parents but his uncle and seeks to kill them, Snoke is intriguing as he is only shown in hologram form, he was still very powerful and I'm sure he will be a lot better in the upcoming Episodes, personally I think that Captain Phasma was a little bit disappointing, I'm glad she survives but putting her in a trash compactor was rather funny, I hope her power is actually shown in the next film as in this one she was boring, although she looked excellent all she did was moan and not have anything iconic like Boba Fett did, maybe she needed her own ship or more screen time or scenes where she was actually fighting rather than whining, killing off one of the best characters in cinema history is an incredibly bold move, if it doesn't pay off and a huge gap is left then the new trilogy will have an unfixable problem. I think that this would have been carefully schemed though. All of the new characters are good, I really like the mysterious Lor San Tekka, I have heard a rumour that everybody in this film is returning which I see as strange as some perished, if this next film is better than this one then it will be an incredible film. I'm glad this film is destroying box office records like Starkiller Base destroyed the Republic! I hope Disney don't ruin Star Wars or Indiana Jones for that matter, this isn't a perfect film but it is as seminal continuation considering the gap in timeline.
The ending was beautiful, seeing Luke was spectacular although it was a shame he didn't feature more but never mind. The lightsaber duel was spectacular, one of the best in the series and leaps and bounds above the prequel duels, they felt too choreographed and lacked the passion seen in the originals in my opinion, they were still thrilling but this was much better filmed.
All in all, this is one of the best films in a pretty disappointing year, with several classic scenes, especially when Rey has the vision after touching Luke's lightsaber, hopefully Rogue One next year is brilliant.