A Movie Review. Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) has disappeared, driven by the fact that his nephew Ben Solo/Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) turned to the dark side while training to be a Jedi under his guidance. Yet, his sister Princess/General Leia (Carrie Fisher) needs him. The Empire has returned to the scene, re-emerging as The First Order. The problem is that no one knows where Luke Skywalker is; however, Luke did leave a clue -- probably in case an emergency arose.

Leia sends pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) to meet with Lor San Tekka (Max von Sydow) who has a map that leads to Luke Skywalker. Somehow, The First Order is also aware that Lor San Tekka knows the location of Luke Skywalker. So both The Resistance and The First Order descend on the planet Jakku. Poe Dameron arrives first, but The First Order soon descends on the scene. Poe Dameron hides the map with robot BB-8. Poe is than taken prisoner by Kylo Ren.

BB-8 eventually runs into Rey (Daisy Ridley). The First Order figures out that BB-8 has the map and put out a bounty on the robot. With the assistance of a former stormtrooper Finn (John Boyega), Rey escapes the First Order and flies off in the Millennium Falcon!!! Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) find a pin needle in a haystack, coming across their ship.

This provides the set-up for the rest of the movie as the Resistance must both battle The First Order and search for Luke Skywalker.

So what did I think of this major blockbuster movie?

A pleasant enough popcorn movie. I say pleasant. It isn't a brilliant popcorn movie like the first Iron Man or The Dark Knight. The major knock I have on this is that I couldn't help but think this movie is nothing more than J.J. Abrams' youthful re-imagination of Star Wars: A New Hope.

Also, what gets really irritating about this movie is all the wink winks to the original Star Wars. It got to the point where it felt like J.J. Abrams was ripping off the first movie.

And what's up with both Rey and Finn holding their own to some degree with Kylo Ren in their individual lightsaber fights? It just drives me nuts when a highly trained warrior has difficulty fighting folks with limited skills. That's the one thing that irritated me with Man of Steel. How could Superman battle a trained warrior in General Zod when Superman had no previous experience in dealing with someone so powerful?

So I've read some of the theories out there and here's what I think about two of them (spoilers). Please note I'm not a super Star Wars fan so I don't know every minor detail about the franchise.

Is Kylo Ren a double agent? I don't think so. Someone killing off the person that he killed off (I'll leave that one a secret), would seem to indicate he is not a double agent. One should only go so far. If Kylo is a double agent, he went too far in killing off you-know-who. I'm not saying that Kylo Ren won't eventually find redemption, I'm just saying he's no double agent.

Who is Rey's father? Luke? Leia? Obi-Wan's grandchild? Or reincarnation of Darth Vader. I toss out the Darth Vader part. As mentioned in one article I read, Darth Vader was redeemed in Return of the Jedi. Also, it just seems too out in left field to learn that Rey is the reincarnation of Darth Vader. I could buy her being Luke's, Leia's or Obi-Wan's. The more seems to give credence to all 3 ideas. Rey being Luke's daughter seems the most obvious based on the movie, but then that could just be a red herring.