Birthday Special: Movie Review - Star Wars: The Force Awakens

So I'm now a quarter of a century old and as always, we spend my birthday with my final film review of the year until my Best of 2015 posts and this time, after a 10 year wait (which seems to be a thing for long running franchises), we finally get the long awaited sequel to Return of the Jedi. Now I was among many Star Wars fans who was worried that this would flop, but I can now say with all confidence that the gamble Disney made, has paid off and Star Wars is in the right place. So let's go into hyperspace and re-enter the galaxy far far away:

So as always with all Star Wars films, the film begins with reading and then we get right into the action. So 30 years after the destruction of the Death Star II and the deaths of Sidious and Vader, the Rebels now known as the Resistance and the Empire now known as the First Order, are both on the hunt to find one Luke Skywalker (reprised by Mark Hamill) who is said to be the last known Jedi in the galaxy and has gone missing. But as luck would have it, a droid by the name of BB-8 has stashed away piece of a map that can help either side find Luke and so General Leia (reprised by Carrie Fisher) sends out her best pilot to find the droid. But in the midst of the hunt for Luke, 2 unlikely characters, a former stormtrooper Finn (played by John Boyega) and a scavenger called Rey (played by Daisy Ridley) unite to get BB-8 to the resistance, meeting a number of characters old and new along the way, while also learning of a weapon similar to the Death Star, but much larger by comparison.

That's all I can say about the film without spoiling it. This film is packed with references to earlier films (more originals than prequels which is good in my opinion) and has a lot of actors that I regconise from a huge array of other films and not just from Star Wars. There's a few from Harry Potter, Attack the Block, Hot Fuzz and even The Raid. As we're now at a stage where a balance between CGI and practical effects have to be made in a number of big films, The Force Awakens takes that into account and gives us a lot of spectacular effects, with some practical ones too and it all works. As far as acting is concerned, it is well acted by everyone and will no doubt help Disney get the money they lost with Tomorrowland and The Good Dinosaur. I am glad Disney were able to make this a great film and it just goes to show that with a lot of work put in, you can make a great film and not have to put up with annoying comic relief. Well done Disney and well done J.J. Abrams. May the force be with us all. 10/10