Fellman's Movie Reviews

Star Wars: Episode 7 – The Force Awakens is the seventh movie in the Star Wars franchise and the first film in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. This movie stars Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, Domhnall Gleeson, and Andy Serkis as Supreme Leader Snoke. Mark Hamill makes a brief cameo at the very end when Rey finally finds him on the remote island of Ahch-To to return his lightsaber to him.  

Now, I, along with many other Star Wars fans, believe that there is something very wrong with the sequel trilogy. In the monetary and commercial sense, they did well. They made Disney a whole lot of money. Congratulations. But, at the same time, it’s Star Wars. You’re kind of riding on the coattails of something that’s pretty much already made its name. Something that’s already too big to fail. You would almost expect it to do well. I would be surprised if it didn’t. The bar was set pretty low when it came to ticket sales. 

The beginning of Episode 7 was practically a rehashing of Episode 4 with new characters. Kylo Ren looked almost exactly like Darth Vader. Poe gives his droid plans and tells it to escape. They end up on a desert planet. The similarities are not only numerous, they’re almost frustrating. Change the lead role from a boy to a girl and think that it’s going to make a whole different movie. It doesn’t. It’s a reboot for a new generation that doesn’t know a whole lot about Star Wars. 

The plot was even the same. They were working against another Death Star essentially. It was just bigger this time. And “The New Order”? What is that? J.J. Abrams might as well just have called it “The Second Empire”. This movie is nothing more than A New Hope, made for a new generation, and with all the new technology that George Lucas didn’t have 30 years ago when he made the originals. 

Speaking of comparing to the originals, Kylo Ren is a laughable villain, at best. He’s fighting people who literally have no training. People that have just picked up a lightsaber for the first time, and he’s losing… Like, he’s supposed to be a Sith Lord. He should be disarming and killing these people in seconds. Instead, he’s getting knocked around by people who didn’t even know what a lightsaber was a little bit ago. What is Kylo Ren’s problem? 

Harrison Ford said he would only do the movie if they killed off Han Solo. And I agree with him. I would want to be taken out too. I wouldn’t want to tarnish the reputation of my character with what was obviously going to be a series of bad movies. It’s a shame that they couldn’t find some better writers to come up with some original material for this film. God knows that there are plenty of people out there who have tons of ideas for Star Wars. 

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t see it, though. Good or bad, it is still part of the Skywalker storyline. And if you’re going to watch the whole thing, you have to watch them all. And that includes this one. So, yeah. Go and see Star Wars: Episode 7 – The Force Awakens. Not because it’s a great movie. But because it’s part of a set. And when something is part of a set, you have to take the good with the bad. You have to be determined. Like the Jedi. And as always, may the force be with you…