The most important part of a movie is its characters. An overabundance of CGI and a mediocre story could all be forgiven if the lead characters are interesting and relatable. Seeing a relatable character begin the movie with one set of beliefs, and over the course of the film watch them grow and develop is a great experience. Every sin the prequels made would not have been as big a deal if the characters were well-written, however, many of the major players seem to be in the movie to simply deliver lines of dialogue and move along the story, rather than be actual people. Anakin is the only character who has somewhat of an arc throughout the trilogy, but his fall to evil is much less tragic than it could be, since he was never such a great guy to begin with. The Force Awakens has very strong characters, each with their own unique traits and interesting arcs. Rey is the classic hero, but she actually happens to be a clever inverse of Luke, where she wants to stay on her planet and is reluctant to use The Force. As the movie goes on, she ventures outside of her home planet and eventually accepts the ways of The Force to help her escape captivity and later defeat Kylo Ren. She was badass, charming, a good fighter, a great pilot, and overall a relatable hero. Finn showed us under the stormtrooper helmet, something we had never seen before, and we got to see the nameless soldiers as actual people. Horrified with his friend's death and the slaughter of innocents, Finn leaves the First Order behind and starts looking out for himself. He only pretends to be part of the Resistance to impress Rey, and is actually a coward at heart, but as the film progresses, he learns to put others before himself, and work in a group with friends. Poe Dameron was another fun character, and Kylo Ren, as mentioned above, was a good villain, but another character that surprisingly had an arc was Han Solo himself. Solo began The Force Awakens as a smuggler who had left behind his wife and the Resistance after his son turned to the dark side, but after teaming up with Finn and Rey, he eventually gains the courage to confront his fallen son, which ultimately does not end well for our favorite scoundrel. Do you agree with my list? Do you prefer The Force Awakens or the prequels? What is your favorite Star Wars movie?
