A meaningless continuation of a saga that was decidedly concluded in Return of the Jedi. This is a poor attempt at converting something that was created as a mythical epic into a soap opera.

An enjoyable beginning to the sequel trilogy! <em>'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'</em> entertained me. It felt like a fresh direction for the overall franchise, which I guess is little surprise given George Lucas was not a major part of this. I actually didn't notice a great deal of difference, or at least as much as I thought there'd be given his exclusion. I enjoyed seeing the new cast merge with the old trio, even if there are only small appearances from two of the latter. Daisy Ridley and John Boyega are excellent additions, both give top performances - I will say I didn't sense major chemistry between the two, but I assume that'll come soon enough. Adam Driver, meanwhile, suits his role nicely. Original trio Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill all feature, though - as alluded to - Ford is the only one that has a major part to play. Either way, it's cool seeing them back in the franchise. Everything else about the film satisfied me, I'm not saying it's perfect - esp. the plot - but I found it perfectly fun to watch. For me, it's a strong start for this era of <em>'Star Wars'</em>.

**The following is a review that I originally wrote in 2015.** Was it perfect? No. Was it basically a shot for shot retread of A New Hope? Yeah. Did it under-develop characters and plots of almost everything interesting to near Boba Fett-ian levels? Sure. Did the entire thing rely on about 47 ridiculously implausible complete coincidences that the story would have fallen apart without? Sounds accurate. But after more than three decades, is Star Wars finally back? Damn right. Apart from my just plain enjoying it, The Force Awakens makes me excited for the future of the franchise the first time in.. Well ever really. I liked the blend of new and old material, but I hope that moving forward, the series relies more on the new. I don't mean ditch all the original characters, I just mean we don't need endless callbacks to the past in Episode VIII. It worked fine for this one, and I totally get needing to re-acclimatise audiences, so I'm absolutely understanding of it in this case. But I hope they get away from that in future, and it seems very much as if that's the direction they're taking.