Star Wars: A New Hope 2

Rating: 7/10 (13 January 2016)

Just over a year ago, on November 28, the first official teaser trailer for possibility the most hyped film to ever be released, hit the internet. Just as any human, Jedi or not, knew that this was just the first shovel of excitement to be thrown on the increasingly fast hype train.
Now, a year later, everyone from friends, family, work colleagues, even the postman (saying how much the kids loved it) has seen the 7th chapter in a record breaking Sava of films - this isn't just a family visit to the cinema... This is an event. With a lot of fans tearing up their Jaja binks masks they bought before watching The Phantom Menace back in when they say the movie back in 1999, JJ Abrams had the pressure of redeeming their beloved franchise looming over his shoulder . Did he succeed... Oh yeah!
The Force Awakens made old of the heavily used CGI characters and green screen settings in place for practical effects and real, breathtaking locations; which is what I felt was the main reason this felt like a real Star Wars movie! Poe (Oscar Isaac),Finn (John Boyega) and Rey (Daisy Ridley) are Disney's hope to recreate a cast as iconic as that of Luke, Leia, and Han Solo - which they just may of done. The relatively unknown actors gave a black canvas which no one knew what each actor would paint. But to many people's surprise, Finn did not feel like the main antagonist that the posters made him out to be... The real Star of the show was Daisy Ridley's, Luke Skywalker like, Rey - showing that a strong female character doesn't need to show 97% of their body and rely on their one and only love to rescue them. However Poe and Finn were great too with extra mention to the cocky yet cool Poe. The old trio make a pleasant return too, which to my surprise fit right into place and not just thrown in for unnecessary fan service. Kylo Ren, this generation's Darth Vader work good as a villain with a reasoning behind his actions as he tries to one up Vader by creating a planet sized Death Star.
But this is were my only real issue with The Force Awaken is and that is with the story. I was expecting to see a new story that partially connected with the previous films. But instead got an almost soft reboot of the original (A New Hope). Without spoiling the film, all I'll say is there's a poor, lonely desert dweller looking for more, a masked villain wearing black ,and a huge, spherical weapon capable of mass destruction.
Despite this, I still had a lot of fun with Episode 7 and feel that it well redeems the franchise from George Lucas's CGI wet dream that were the prequels.
Great new characters and returning ones, effects that give the film heart, And stellar visuals. Just a little huddle with the story is something I couldn't quite jump over.