Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review (SPOILERS)

SPOILERS AHEAD

So I finally got around to seeing The Force Awakens and I thought it was good, far superior to The Phantom Menace, but it didn't blow me away or anything. I guess that no movie could surpass the high expectations set by the original trilogy. I'll start with the bad. My biggest pet peeve was that the movie felt like a complete rehash of the original Star Wars. At times it felt more like a remake than a sequel. Finn was the new Han. Rey was the new Luke. Kylo Ren was the new Vader. Snoke was the new Palpatine. Han was the new Obi-Wan. BB-8 was the new R2-D2. Luke was the new Yoda. My second pet peeve is that we probably won't be seeing any characters from the Expanded Universe. No Thrawn, no Pelleon, no Joruus, no Mara Jade, and Boba Fett probably won't be brought back either. I guess too much time has passed in real life to adopt the Thrawn trilogy, although I do hope that Snoke isn't really a reborn Palpatine or something dumb like in Dark Empire.

Now onto the good stuff. Simply seeing the "original" X-wings, TIE fighters, and stormtroopers onscreen again was astounding and as was seeing Chewie, Han, and Leia. John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, and Oscar Issac were all awesome actors and a lot better than I thought they would be. The special effects and scenery were all really nice and appealing without being too distracting or computerized. And of course, John Williams' score was epic as always. Last but not least, no Jar Jar or any other gungan.

Here's hoping that the follow up to TFA isn't just The Empire Strikes Back 2: Electric Boogaloo.