The Force Awakens probably has more to set up than any other movie in history; it needs to introduce an entirely new set of characters and situations, bring back the cast and iconography of the original trilogy updated in a believable manner, tie those two elements together into a wider world that is similar, but not identical, to what came before, all the while setting up events for the following two Episodes. Oh, and tell its own, self-contained story during all of that. Imagine the original Star Wars if it had to give the entire backstory of the prequels in pretty explicit detail in addition to everything else it did. That is a mammoth narrative undertaking (no wonder Star Wars alum Lawrence Kasdan was brought in to sort it out) and, in fairness, for the most part the film deals with it pretty well. It's just when you have characters like Kylo Ren, who have so much weight to them entire tomes could be written on essential backstory (keep an eye out for that book actually), it can all be a bit unwieldily in the scenes surrounding them. It's important to remember that these previous three points are disappointments, not the conventional "things that suck". They aren't movie-ruining moments or decisions that will be treated on a level as those George Lucas made with the prequels - they're irritations that rise more out of overexcitement than anything that too negatively impacts the whole picture. I've seen the film twice now and when you take it outside of the hype bubble it is a really entertaining movie that slots nicely into the Star Wars canon. They did it; J.J. Abramas may not have made a perfect film, but boy did he make a great Star Wars movie. What did you think of Star Wars: The Force Awakens? Share your thoughts down in the comments.
