Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (DVD) – Movie Review
Follow Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Director: J.J. Abrams
Distributor: Lucasfilm Ltd.
Duration: 130 minutes

Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (DVD) – Movie Review

Site Score
8.5
Good: Qualitative, Acting performances, Story
Bad: 'Same old formula'
User Score
9.7
(3 votes)
Click to vote
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Rating: 9.7/10 (3 votes cast)

The epic saga that was set in motion in 1979 was on hiatus after the ‘last’ three movies (which are actually the first three of the six that were released) were created between 1999 and 2005. While it was a matter of time before entries VII, VIII and IX would be created, nobody knew how the story would unfold and if it would incorporate actors from both the original trilogy, as well as the second one. Even though fans had enough Star Wars series and games to enjoy before Episode VIII – The Force Awakens hit the theatres, the hype was very much alive when it finally did. We strapped ourselves in to travel to that certain galaxy, far far away.

Star Wars Episode VII The Force Awakens

After Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) vanished into thin air, the rebels were left to fend for themselves. Nonetheless, Leia (Carrie Fisher), who became the rebels’ general, is still trying to find her brother desperately, hoping to shift the tides of the battles at hand. While Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) manages to gain intel on Luke’s whereabouts, the joyous occasion is immediately interrupted by the First Order, which are basically the new villains that have arisen from the ashes of the Empire. Even though Poe and his trustworthy droid BB-8 try to escape, Poe is captured by Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), who will try to extract Luke’s location from him, one way or another. Sadly, he finds out, thanks to his evil powers unlocked by the dark side of the Force, that Poe’s droid is the actual source of information. While Poe is left alive, probably to be disposed of at a later date, a rogue Stormtrooper risks his life to bust Poe out, if he can tag along. FN-2187 (John Boyega), later dubbed Finn by Poe, has been filled with doubt about the First Order’s agenda for quite some time and he realizes he simply wants to get as far away as possible from it all. Even though it seems like their plan of hijacking a Tie Fighter might just work, they are soon after blasted from the sky, causing them to crash land on Jakku.

Star Wars Episode VII The Force Awakens 1

Finn survived the crash and in a frenzy he tries to find Poe, but there’s no sign of him and when the wreckage of the Tie Fighter explodes soon after, he believes his first ‘friend’ has passed away. He then sets forth his path in order to find some form of civilization. A bit further on the same planet, BB-8 has come across Rey (Daisy Ridley), a scrapper, who roams the desert planet, recycling parts from wreckages which she sells in order to survive. She agrees to take BB-8 to the central hub of Jakku, but trouble soon finds them when not only the local ‘enforcer’ wishes to claim BB-8 for his own, the First Order also arrives on the scene looking for the droid. When Finn joins the party and gets acquainted with both Rey and BB-8, they make a run for it, hoping to deliver BB-8 home safe and sound. Little did they know they hijacked the Millenium Falcon, which was stolen years ago from Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), who are still looking for their lost vessel up until this day. It’s only a matter of time before someone finds them, good or evil.

The flow of this movie is a bit the same like it was in Episode I and Episode IV, where a problem arises and ‘the chosen one’ is unknowingly discovered and is in need of training. All this happens while the bad organization is gaining power and does one atrocious act that kills millions of people, and they want to do it again. This formula will either please fans, to treat them with something they already know and love, or annoy them that nothing ‘new’ has been done. Fans of the series will also notice a lot of not-so-subtle winks to the previous movies, which are certainly amusing.

As is to be expected for a title of this magnitude, acting performances are simply what you’d expect, namely outstanding. While there are many ‘newcomers’, who don’t have that much acting experience under their belts, it certainly charms the movie that it isn’t crammed full with faces we see in other movies all the time. It’s also clear that the series is slowly becoming a bit more diverse when it comes to which characters (races and gender) take leading roles, it’s another touch that simply boosts the franchise’s likeability.

Sadly unlike the Blu-ray release, the DVD release of Episode VII does not come with any extras. While it’s possible that the movie itself takes up most of the DVD’s storage space, it’s a damn shame there isn’t any extra content to be found.

Conclusion

Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens is a worthy continuation of the series, thanks to the many references to the previous movies, as well as the rather unchanged setup and formula of the franchise. While many new actors join the battle of light versus dark, they add a lot of value to the movie, especially the ‘new’ leading characters. While we’ll have to wait some time before Episode VIII will hit the theatres, you’ll have the spinoff, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, to look forward to later this year.

Star Wars Episode VII The Force Awakens 3

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Rating: 9.7/10 (3 votes cast)
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Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (DVD) - Movie Review, 9.7 out of 10 based on 3 ratings

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