NO SPOILERS - Has rendered the prequels even more pointless than they first were....

Rating: 10/10 (16 December 2015)

...., mainly because there are distinct references to relevant back stories in this film, tying certain characters together, concerning the 30 years since all events in the last movies, as there was in the original 3 movies, in relation to Darth Vader on that occasion. In order to tell these new stories fully they would have to sandwich movies in the middle of Return of the Jedi and Force Awakens, but of course they don't need to do that, allowing our own imagination to fill in the gaps, in much the same way fans, casual or otherwise, did upon first watching the original trilogy way back when, as indeed this movie does too. So, I would like to suggest that the prequels are now redundant. Having just watched the original trilogy, without all the extra gumph George Lucas tacked on to it for DVD and Bluray, seeing it in all it's VHS glory, the Force Awakens feels as though it really does belong to the original narrative, and works very well as a story occurring 30 years later. Much of that is attributed to the way this movie was filmed, using a lot of practical effects, as opposed relying entirely on CGI. There was something, I won't say what that 'something' was, that really did disappoint me, leaving me quite shocked, however in retrospect, later, I was able to appreciate all other aspects of the movie, character development, story progression, etc, and began to question if I really needed what I thought I was going to, and wanted to see.