Let's enjoy this while it lasts

Rating: 9/10 (6 January 2016)

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens is without a doubt the greatest piece of Star Wars content to be released by a major studio since Return of the Jedi. I'd go as far as to say it's one of the best science fiction films to be released in that time frame as well. J.J. Abrams, the creator of Lost and more recently the man who revived an aging Star Trek franchise, outdid himself. Forget all of the hoopla surrounding George Lucas' distaste for the new film. He had his time, and when he was called upon to continue the saga he disappointed the fans. J.J. answered the call and hit a home run.
The film starts 30+ years after Return of the Jedi. A new darkness has taken hold of the galaxy in the form of The First Order. The group is picking up right where the Empire left off. It's sole mission: total domination of the galaxy, destroying anyone who stands in their way. Like the Empire, conformity is their model. Standing up to the school yard bully are the familiar rebels, this time in the form of the Resistance, allies to the Republic. I don't want to go too far into the plot as I think it best that you go in as fresh as possible (I was so close to making it!), but I assure you that this new crop of characters are the best since the original trilogy.
Abrams introduces us to several characters that within the first few minutes of screen time have more character and range than any and all of the prequel characters. Poe Dameron, Finn, Kylo Ren, Rey, and BB-8 have gone from faces in a movie trailer to household names virtually overnight. My brother said it best that BB-8 has more personality than all of the prequel characters combined, and he's right. These new characters have goals, ambition, emotions we can relate to, AND these characters fit in the Star Wars universe. At the end of the film I was genuinely curious about what would happen to them in the next film.
Characters aside, there's a lot to love about this film. My one wish going into the film was to have a fair amount of in camera effects and a plethora of aliens actually walking about. While it's unreasonable to expect there to be a Star Wars film completely void of major CGI characters and effects, boy did Abrams do right in my book. The film is full of great costumes, animatronics, and in camera effects that fans of the original films will get weak at the knees over. It felt like being back in a place with living trees, dry deserts, and frozen plains, not just a green screen with actors wearing sensor suits (though the film is not void of that).
So with great characters and living breathing aliens on distant planets, what else does this new film offer that the prequels were lacking? Story. The prequels had a lot of issues in regards to story. Pointless sequences that went on far too long to achieve very little, details that were both boring and disappointing to hear, and the atrocious display of lightsaber fights showcasing stunt choreography instead of the characters emotions. Lightsaber duels were representative of the struggle between two characters. Obi Wan and Darth Vader in A New Hope, and then Luke versus Vader in both Empire and Return. Those fights stood for the struggle against good and evil, an externalization of their feelings. The prequels had double sided sabers, acrobatic Jedis, and the coup de grace of lightsaber atrocities, the spinning quad sabers of General Grievous. This was my main gripe with the prequels, and I was really hoping would be corrected in the new film, and thank the maker it was. Without giving too much away, there is a lightsaber fight in the new film that is possibly the best in the entire series. It's full of emotion and representative of the struggles inside the characters.
There is an endless stream of outrage over what was done with the prequels, so I won't go into great lengths. There is one thing that couldn't be helped, regardless of who was writing or directing, and it's something J.J. did not have to deal with. One of the problems the prequels had to deal with is that the audience knows where the films needs to take us for Episode IV. That's the problem any filmmaker faces when making a prequel. Suffice to say J.J. and legendary screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan had virtually free reign about where to take the franchise. This film strikes the perfect balance of acknowledging the original trilogy while not being afraid to take it in a new direction. Upon my second viewing I noticed a few more nods to the original films. They were subtle and didn't take me out of the story.
So here we are, entering 2016 with our seventh Star Wars film in the can, and lord knows how many more Star Wars iterations will be released in the coming years. I wouldn't be surprised if in 10 years times we have twice as many films in the Star Wars catalog to talk about. I don't know if that's a good thing, but only time will tell. For the moment, let's take a moment and enjoy what we have. J.J. has given us a wildly entertaining film that will be torn apart, raised up, and talked about for years to come.