On New Year’s Day, my dad, brother, and I drove to Atlanta to watch Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This was Brayden (my brother) and I’s first time to see one of the movies in the Star Wars saga in theatre. We were very excited.
***Warning: Spoilers Ahead***
To start off my review, I’m going to go into each main character.
Rey. I loved Rey! I was happy that we finally received another girl character, because other than Padme and Leia there had not really been any main ones. She definitely did not mess around and I was excited to see that she used a lightsaber. Her mysterious past leaves room to “play around in” for the next few movies and I’ll be interested to see how that fits in and where she comes from.
Finn. I felt that Finn was the character everyone could relate to. Such as when he said, “Stay calm…Stay calm…” to himself when they were about to make a daring escape and when he decided that he was not going to stay and fight – he was going to run away to the Outer Rim. I love that they showcased a very human character.
Poe. Even though the Resistance pilot did not get as much screen time as the others, I did like what I saw of his character. I hope we’ll get to see more of him in the next film.
Kylo Ren. This was definitely an interesting character. Obviously, he’s the villain in the movie but by his own words, “Forgive me. I feel it again… the call from light,” we can see that he has not completely given over to the Dark Side yet. But then, he fatally wounds his father to the point where Han Solo could very well be dead. So who knows. It will be interesting to see if they continue to show his struggle between the light and dark in future films. Although he’s not my favorite character, I do hope he comes back to the Resistance and his family.
Han, Leia, and Luke: It was fun to see all of the actors/actress from the originals come back to the screen in Star Wars! It seems like Han and Leia have had some difficulties in their relationship seemingly caused by their son’s temptation followed by his change to the Dark Side. It is clear that they still love each other, however as evidenced by the picture above where he holds her. Luke is barely shown in the film though I believe he will likely have a larger role in the next one. Or at least that’s what I’m assuming since Rey will need training with her ability regarding the Force.
Overall, I really enjoyed the film. BB-8 was a great addition to C3-PO and R2-D2 with his playful personality and rolling body. I really liked Maz Kanata with her quirkiness and wisdom. But what about y’all? What did you think of the characters and movie overall? Let me know in the comments!
Rating of 8.5-9/10.
~ Southern Dreamer
Southern Dreamer 
I absolutely adored it! Rey is definitely one of my new favorite characters of all time. And I love the story — I think the scriptwriters did so incredibly well with the themes and the call for redemption.
There were a couple points in the story that didn’t really make sense, like Finn’s choice to leave the First Order. It seemed to rushed, and I feel like they could’ve developed that more. Or, his sudden, drastic change of heart could be some time of major plot point that we’ll learn about later. Also I didn’t like how easy it was for R2 to wake up with the map. I understand that, at one point, finding the map was no longer the main goal of the characters, but still, I felt like it should’ve been a little harder for them to get the completed map. I saw somewhere online someone suggest that it would’ve been cool if Rey had tried to fix R2 and in the process found the map in him. A
Anyhow, those are a couple of the things I didn’t like, but the rest was absolutely spectacular. Seeing Han and Leia and Luke and Chewie again was so heartwarming. And some scenes — like the interrogation scene with Kylo and Rey and he takes off his mask and then Rey uses the Force and just gah. That part was epic. I can’t wait for the next episode.
Yes! Oh yeah I totally agree with you about Finn leaving the First Order and how that needed to be explained. Maybe something triggered his “programming” getting messed up? That would make more sense, I think with why he would have just left. Rey’s definitely one of my new favorite characters as well 🙂
Hi guys, Finn’s choice is explained a bit better in the Before the Force Awakens novel. Not to spoil it but he can still remember life before he was taken to be a stormtrooper and he never really felt like a stormtrooper… Also it builds on his and Phasma’s relationship a lot!
Oh! I’ll have to check that out! Thanks! 🙂
Yeah, it’s mainly due to his relationship with the stormtrooper who died on Jakku as well (the bloody handprint guy XD) and also his relationship with the Traitor Stormtrooper (affectionately nicknamed TR-8R :P)
Yeah, I think the guy on Jakku was ‘Slip’ who was clumsy and TR-8R was either Nines or Zeroes 🙂 it’s a pretty decent book, Greg Rucka is doing great things with the Star Wars expanded universe
Yes, Slip was the one that got killed. I think Finn was closest to him, and Phasma wasn’t a fan of that
If I understand right, the battle on Jakku was Finn’s first field experience, so he might not have realized the full picture of war before that, prompting him to run away. Finn, though. Such a great character. *keyboard smash*