Force Awakens

Star Wars. Yup, it's a thing.

As I was sitting in the theatre waiting for the feature to start, my cousin asked me "Do you think it's a good idea for them to make another Star Wars movie?" It kinda stumped me. If there's money to be made, it's not so much about if it's a good idea as much as it just being a matter of time. Despite my excitement for FA, I kinda wish they didn't need to make another trilogy. Or the prequels. I was pretty happy with the original set and the expanded universe. But to say "I wish they never made any more!" is kind of an old, grumpy thing to say. Regardless, they made the movie. And it was good.

I kinda felt like the movie spent half the time winking and nudging you as if to say, "Hey, see that? Yeah, it's a Star Wars movie. Get it? We made a Star Wars reference. Hah, did you catch that! It was like those other Star Wars movies you really liked!" Essentially, it felt like they mushed the good parts of A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back together.

And can you blame them? Stakes are pretty high on this one, and I have no doubt that they before they set off there was a LOT of discussion about what made the originals so good, and how they can give fans what they want.

The action was good, the art direction was good, the cast had good chemistry, the story established a solid foundation to build on... You can't really fault them for anything.

But it reminded me of the final episode of Breaking Bad: It did what it needed to do and checked off every last box that it needed to. It wasn't exactly anything too ground-breaking, either. Very well done, and very safe.

So I'll give it a solid 4/5, probably on par with Jedi or Hope. It didn't rock my world like Interstellar or Fury Road or Grand Budapest Hotel, though. But I'll still probably line up to see the sequel, so they've secured a few of my future dollars.
-Cril