#TBT Movie Review: Star Wars – The Force Awakens

As part of our journey to watch Episode VIII, we watched Episode VII: Force Awakens right after Return of the Jedi. We made it just in time, too, since we had bought our Episode VII tickets for Saturday, December 16th and we began watching Force Awakens the day before after school. 

The kids had seen Force Awakens in the theater when it was released, but now that they had the original trilogy fresh in their minds, they understood something very important they had missed the first time: Kylo Ren is the son of Leia and Han! They could not believe it. It was even worse when they realized Kylo kills his own father. It was horrible, we needed to talk about that with them for a while, too. They just didn’t get it.

Force Awakens is mostly the bridge between the original trilogy and the new, so a lot of things moments were dedicated to explain what happened to the characters in the original trilogy, while introducing the six new main characters: Kylo Ren, Fin, Poe, Rei, BB-8 and Hux (and maybe Snoke, too, I suppose). 

The movie is funny and filled with one action scene after another. I also love that there are a lot of spaceships (I especially like the blue X-Wing). Han Solo steals the show again, unfortunately it doesn’t end well for him. And Kylo Ren, even when his character is a bit over the top, I can totally understand where he’s coming from and his immaturity when it comes to relating to others after finding out he has this great power and what it means to him. 

Rai is a great female role-model, just like Leia was for the original trilogy: strong, intelligent, brave and all of that. They leave you wondering who her parents were to have produced such a powerful child.

Poe, the pilot, is a bit like the new Han Solo, who has the adorable BB-8, a bit like the new R2D2, as his companion droid. And then there’s Fin, a Stormtrooper turned good-guy.

The final new character I must mention is General Hux, played wonderfully by Domhall Gleeson. He is one of my favorites as well. I was glad there was more of him in Episode VIII.

The new trilogy had a great beginning in my opinion. The way they used the past to blend in with the new present was fantastic. I certainly was pleased. Of course, haters will hate, but I am not one of those haters… I am a lover.

cheers!