Review: 3.5/4

Growing up, I was a Star Wars’ fan as much as any boy on my block. I collected the action figures, built the Legos, and fought with light sabers. Star Wars persists in some of my earliest memories and going into the theater to see the newest installment, Episode VII: The Force Awakens, made me feel like the same seven-year-old once again. Familiarity is Star Wars’ biggest asset, and it plays with one’s nostalgia throughout its running time. The effects, for example, have a great retro feeling to them, as if the audience was transported back to 1977, when the first installment was released.

This is a stark contrast to the soulless computer-generated imagery of the prequel franchise. Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher return as Han Solo and Princess Leia. Their chemistry hasn’t aged since we left them 33 years ago.

The new characters are just as fun to watch. Daisy Ridley and John Boyega portray the characters of Rey and Finn. Rey is an outsider living on the planet Jakku (a new location, the junk planet) who has been waiting for her family to return for years. Finn is a former Stormtrooper who renounced his evil organization and has plans to run away from his former home. Both actors have great charisma, and the audience has the chance to experience the endless possibilities and potential of where these characters could go. Once leaving the theater, one will not only remember their names but be excited for the direction the franchise will take them in the future.

Adam Driver, the new antagonist, plays Kylo Ren, an up and coming Sith Lord who idolizes Darth Vader. If there is one complaint I have, it would be what the character does with this idolization of Darth Vader and not the performance itself (Driver does a fine job). Kylo Ren and the new evil organization The First Order build a Death Star look-alike called the Starkiller Base. It has the same function of the former, except now it is a full fledged planet. To the film’s credit, it is very self-aware about this similarity. Despite the shortcomings in the overall plot, offering us something completely new was not the film’s purpose. It is to take us all back to where we left off.