The Force Awakens, the movie Star Wars needed

Rating: 9/10 (29 December 2015)

There should be no spoilers. nothing here should ruin anything
I'll start off by saying that J.J. Abrams I tip my hat to you, Once George Lucas sold Star Wars to Disney, I thought, "great Disney's gonna ruin the franchise". Well they did not ruin the franchise, Abrams make a great leap forward with Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Was it the best film in the series? My opinion no. Was it the worst? Most definitely no. I can say it is better than the prequel trilogy. There were good things and bad things about the film. It did a great job giving the feeling that this film could be from one of the original films. There wasn't a overkill with CGI effects and characters didn't look fake or added in like in the prequel movies i.e. Jar Jar Binks. There were good shots taken in the film and some not so good ones. at times certain angles should have been utilized more than other but every movie has those. I liked how Abrams took chances on certain things in the movie, like a leap of faith, much like in "A New Hope" when Lucas had Darth Vader kill Obi-Wan.
There was some character development but not as much as other would have liked. Personally I didn't mind the development between characters and the addition of new characters like Finn, Rey, Poe Dameron, Kylo Ren, General Hux, and the ever growing fan favorite BB-12 helped establish the next chapter of this franchise. There was some issues with people not liking the Actors chosen for their roles, personally I thought they all did decent. I would have liked to see more development between Finn and Rey but that may occur in the future so we will have to wait and see. Poe Dameron was an interesting character, where in the original trilogy and even the prequels there were always 3 main characters (Luke, Leia, Han) and (Obi-wan, Anakin, Pademe). In this film it was Finn and Rey and it felt like Abrams wanted Poe to be the third. I had a slight issue with that because he doesn't have enough contact with the other two characters and there isn't enough development between them. Hopefully they will change in the future.
I have to praise the point that when it came to villains there were two different types in this movie. When it came to overall evil individuals, General Hux was the villain in the film. He was the merciless killer who had no sympathy for those who were against the First Order. Then you have Kylo Ren, Played by Adam Driver, an individual who I felt had the hardest job of all. It's easy as a director to tell an actor that they are to portray a character who is evil or good but to tell an actor to portray a character that has to deal with both good and evil and show it throughout the movie is not an easy feat.
Special effects were great yet I had some issues with the lightsabers. The glow the came off of them were different from any other film and they seemed to be less effective when it came to cutting things in half. In Revenge of the Sith if you were to be hit with the saber it cut through whatever it hit and in this film you could have it touch you and only make a burn mark. That was something I did not like too much. The comedic factor in this film was enough to make it enjoyable but not overkill, Bringing back all the original cast and even a bunch of background characters was a great touch and it was nice to see Abrams bring everyone back.
Overall the film was one that the series needed and Abrams took some chances that payed off and actions made in this film will lead to actions in future films. It was a step up from the prequel trilogy and something that only helped the franchise positively. We will have to wait and see how this will effect the 8th film. But with Abrams leading the charge the galaxy will be safe in his hands.
I would give it a 9.3 out of 10 overall
thank you for reading
-Dave Horvath