I have had a lifelong love affair with this franchise. I watched these movies since birth and as such my first words as a child were in Huttese as I spoke the dialogue Greedo had between him and Han Solo in A New Hope. There are many people who have stories of their love for Star Wars. It has lasted several decades and now spanned three generations. Unfortunately other than what we had on television we have been bereft of new content. The prequel trilogy, while some may argue is an atrocity for all mankind, gave us something but it was a lead up to a story and conclusion we were already familiar with and while I didn't hate it, it was definitely a lesser shadow of what was. In comes this new trilogy, stories we do not know, characters we have yet to meet and a whole new production team. In lieu of Fox we have Disney, behind the directors chair we have JJ Abrams along with Little Miss Sunshine's Michael Arndt on writing duties. We also have familiar friends returning off and on the camera. Mark Hamil, Carrie Fisher, Peter Mayhew, Harrison Ford, Anthony Daniels and some friends you may not recognize. Enhancing the film is of course the maestro himself, John Williams behind the score but one of my biggest excitements was the return of Empire and Indiana Jones scribe, Lawrence Kasdan. He would help write this new saga and the pieces of what we love fall into place. This film had to be brought about with absolute care and caution, you had to bring back the fans heartbroken from the prequels, bring in the new fans who only knew the prequels and for the average moviegoer make them believe in the force. That is the magic of Star Wars, that belief in hope. This film was shrouded in complete mystery and silence. So in keeping with the tradition I will do my best to keep its secrets safe. 
From the ashes of the Empire rises a new threat to the Galaxy, The First Order. Under the rule of Supreme Leader Snoke, masterfully performed by Andy Serkis, and led by his General Hux and the new light saber wielding disciple of evil Kylo Ren, Adam Driver. To counter this threat the now General Leia Organa has formed the Resistance to combat the First Order. The Resistance comes about as the New Republic is formed and has dismantled their military seeing the First Order as not much of a threat. Both sides race to find the now missing Luke Skywalker. The legendary Jedi has gone into exile and the Resistance hopes to find him to bring back while the First Order wishes to eradicate that him. Along the way we meet our new heroes, Poe Damaron, Oscar Issacs, an ace pilot in the Resistance trying to complete a star map to find Luke Skywalker that he has hidden within the memory banks of his droid, BB8, who is hunted by the First Order for the valuable information. Finn, John Boyega, a stormtrooper who defects to the Resistance after seeing the horrors of the First Order. Rey, Daisey Ridley, a young girl who had been abandoned on the desert world of Jakku but after bumping into Finn discovers there's more to herself than she thought.
John Boyega was the casting I was most excited about as his 2011 breakout role as Moses in Joe Cornish's Attack the Block was one of my favorite films of that year and following Boyega's career he has been one of the most versatile actors I've seen in years. It was in fact his performance in Attack the Block that had JJ seeking him out for episode 7. His first scene where he is having a panic attack in his stormtrooper armor as he runs into his first battle is amazing. The inability to emote any facial expressions with his armor on is superseded by his body language. We watch him lose a fellow stormtrooper as he goes to check on him and the trooper wipes a bloody handprint across his helmet. When he takes off his helmet for the first time we see the villainy of the storm troopers personified as human beings. Maybe they aren't all evil. They are all people underneath perhaps misguided. We never truly see Finn commit any atrocities and we sympathize with him as he carries himself throughout the film revealing darkness in his past under the First Order and his charismatic bumbling charm makes us love him. In the end even though he sometimes lies and cowers he rises to the occasion and gathers all his courage to protect the ones he loves. It's a beautiful story arc of how a man raised to be evil becomes a hero. 
Oscar Issacs Poe Damaron is insane. That's the best way I can put it. It's as if you took the piloting skills of Luke and the cocky smack talk of Han and put them together to make Poe. The guy literally makes fun of Kylo Ren to his face as he's mowing people down with his lightsaber. The moment that I loved him though was when the First Order has captured our heroes and we see a squadron of X-Wings zooming across the water. Each pilot in the squadron has complete and utter trust in him as he leads them into victory, with insane maneuvers and deadly accuracy. Screaming and hollering that reminded me so much of when Han came out of nowhere and shot down Vader at the end of A New Hope. The final battle of the film has Poe pretty much single handedly taking everyone and everything out by himself like it was nothing. A lot of people wonder about his character and how he is so good at what he does. The only thing I can say is go and read the Shattered Empire prequel comic which is all about Poe's parents and how he was raised, not to mention his connection with Luke.
Adam Driver's Kylo Ren starts off as a horrid force to be reckoned with. Committing horrible slaughters and using powers that seem unimaginable. He is full of anger and rage, completely unstable. However what is so different about this character is he is not called to the dark side, he is constantly hearing calls to the light. His master it seems is Supreme Leader Snoke, who must have some sort of powers himself but we never truly find out his identity. Ren yearns for the dark side and embraces it but there are moments when the light calls to him and he is touched by it. It tears him up inside and he struggles with the torrent of emotion. As the film progresses he does become less badass and way more whiny, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. This character is basically Anakin Skywalker from the prequels if he was written better and had a better actor. We get the whiny teen angst but Abrams was able to capture it and make it compelling as opposed to where Lucas couldn't really make us care as much. Ren will have crazed horrible temper tantrums but they are scary as hell. When he finally removed his mask and a face is put to the evil, he becomes less scary and more of a tragic character. Although what he does in the film is what made me hate him more than anything in the world. He literally takes your heart and puts it through the meat grinder becoming a true villain and then himself goes completely insane by what he's done culminating in a lightsaber fight that has him rage dueling while he bleeds to death. He has my full hatred, but that's what makes him a good villain. If and when he finally goes down, you will either cheer for his demise or you will cry for his redemption. Only time will tell.
Daisey Ridley's Rey is a treasure. Rey has survived the deserts of Jakku on her own since she was a child. You immediately sympathize with her as you see her struggle to feed herself and count down the days she has been left alone on the planet. She meets BB-8 and saves him making him her companion on the planet. When thugs try to capture BB-8, Finn sees and tries to save her, but she easily dispatches the thugs before Finn can even make it to her. Her character archetype is that of the film's heroine. Almost making Finn the damsel in distress as she saves them both constantly and every time she herself needs saving, figures a way out of the situation before anybody can even attempt to save her. In my opinion she is the film's star and ultimate protagonist as this is really her journey to discovering herself as a hero and learning where she came from and what she can do. She pilots the Millennium Falcon at one point and there is nothing that makes you more badass than that.
Of course along with our new heroes, there is the return of the greatest pair of smugglers the Galaxy has ever known. Chewbacca and Han Solo, Peter Mayhew and Harrison Ford. Han is in full one liner mode in this flick stealing scenes left and right. Harrison is back to full form. Chewie really comes into his own though as he steals a lot of scenes and his bowcaster had apparently become the most powerful weapon in the universe all of a sudden, even Han takes the bowcaster at one point and uses it to blow up a bunch of storm troopers. That continuity error where it's super overpowered is my only gripe but honestly it's so awesome you just don't give a damn. Now the thing about Han in this movie is at this point he has really seen a lot of crazy stuff especially when you're best buddy is savior of an entire religious order. Han finally truly believes in the force and even teaches Rey and Finn a thing or two about it. Basically think of an Atheist who all of a sudden starts preaching about God, that's kind of what it felt like and it was pretty chilling. 
The most important component to this movie that brings these new characters to life and resuscitates the old ones is the triple threat of JJ Abrams, Michael Arndt and Lawrence Kasdan. I can't truly say who wrote what but based off their track records I can guess what each one brought to the table. With the renewed Star Trek movies there was a lot more comedy to bring it to younger audiences and there is definitely a lot more comedy in Force Awakens. I have to believe that choice though was a combination of Kasdan and Abrams as when you look at the films Kasdan wrote in there was definitely more great one liners and jokes. Kasdan's best strength had been writing Han Solo and this is just a surlier version of him. The more overt comedy definitely goes to the newer characters which I have to give credit to Abrams for as he has proven to excel at that. From what I've seen and heard Arndt was brought in to help restructure the film at one point and reign in some of the older characters so as not to overpower the newer ones and what he did in the film with that I feel greatly helped. There are a lot of complaints that this is just a rehash of A New Hope, but there's too much going on here to strictly say that. There are a lot of similarities I will admit but so many of the archetypes have been turned on their heads it brings in a new narrative with a familiar structure. Not to mention the movie itself leaves more questions than answers. A lot is left to thought and pondering and I think a lot of people dislike that whereas I love it. My biggest complaint in contemporary Hollywood is the producer's idea of the audience is dumb so they have to spoon feed every detail and plot point in huge chunks to us. The genius behind this movie is its subtlety. There are so many lines of dialogue and characteristics of people that most would think are throw away lines or not meaningful but there are so many nuances within the story that gives away thoughts and ideas as to what's going on and who everyone is. This illicits theories and arguments that keep you discussing the film itself. That's what a great film should do! I've also heard many complaints about the light saber battles and how lesser they are than the prequels. While they battles in the prequels where grandiose and cool, they didn't tell a story. It was all green screen dances of actors fighting nothing most of the time. A good sword fight should tell where these characters come from. Do they lead with their head, their heart or are they untrained? Why is Finn so great with a lightsaber and able to hold his own against Kylo? Why is Rey able to? Regardless on whether either of them have force abilities they shouldn't be able to hold their own. Abrams was very clever with showing how. One of my favorite scenes has a stormtrooper with some kind of electrified baton and shield, heartening back to Ralph Mcqarrie's original concept of the stormtrooper which had them wielding light sabers. The Trooper screams, "Traitor!" And begins showing off his skills with the baton fighting Finn who wields the lightsaber. In that moment we are informed the First order has indeed trained its troops in sword combat, which is why Finn would be able to wield a lightsaber. Same with Rey, she survived the deserts of Jakku without a blaster and had a weaponized staff to defend herself from all kinds of creatures and thugs, which she uses to easily dispatch the thugs trying to capture BB-8. Ren himself leads with blind rage that often makes him lose his poise, his weapon itself being unstable matching his persona and the brutality of his strikes being led by the anger in his heart. That's the genius of this films writing, it gives us the love we felt watching the originals as it is a spiritually similar film but also gives us so much more to discuss and doesn't treat us like idiots. 
One of the greatest returns not just to Star Wars but to the world is Jim Henson's Creature Shop! The same shop that delivered us amazing monsters and creatures in the original films is back! I've always said that if we never discovered CGI and had kept enhancing the world of practical FX that they would only get more amazing and grandiose and if anything this film proved my point. Not only do we have awesome characters in full body costumes and masks with moving parts and lifelike qualities but we're even get full grown beasts walking around. Not computer generated but created by hand and operated by five people! I watched in awe as I saw a huge beast walk across the screen and saw every part of its body move and all I could think of was how realistic it looked! One of the greatest creations I saved to talk about last was BB-8. He's a giant ball rolling around with a head that magnetically stays attached to said ball. He's real, he really rolls and his head stays attached. Seeing him come to life and interact with characters and see him pull out strange mechanic arms from his compartments to do things, I fell in love. Seeing him brought out my inner child and made me cry. He himself is a testament to what makes Star Wars great, the belief in something amazing, the awe of inspiration, the hope of one day seeing something like that. BB-8 is the center of the movie and embodiment of Star Wars.
To say the least this film had me in tears of joy and sorrow at several scenes and invoked feelings in me that as Vader would say, "A presence I have not felt since..."
I think the way this film is in a sense part rehash of the original movie and is a good way to hook in new comers to the franchise but also put a good taste in the mouths of those spurned by the prequels. This film is the best introduction to the new series. The whole film is a series of hello my name is and this is what I do in the movie, but they are all so good and interesting it's never boring. It will keep you begging for more but at the same time will keep you discussing what transpired and what will be until you see Episode 8. I give this astonishment of a flick five sob inducing John Williams scores out of five because your inner kid will cry like the first time you saw Star Wars.
