The feminist and racial-harmony overtones of the new leads are clear but never overbearing. Her quiet, chance encounter with BB-8 sets up the intersection of all their fates as the First Order violently tracks and pursues its prize. Hungry scavenger Rey (newcomer Daisy Ridley) lives inside the wreckage of a war machine amid Jakku’s desolation, counting the days since she was mysteriously marooned there as a child. War is hell, and Finn’s trauma leads to an impulsive escape from his ship and back to Jakku with Dameron’s help. Dameron stashes it away in his unassuming ball droid, BB-8, just as the First Order descends.įinn ( John Boyega) is a fresh-off-the-transport stormtrooper who witnesses atrocities under the command of First Order villain Kylo Ren (Adam Driver, in a deliciously angry, trembling performance).
X-wing pilot Poe Dameron (a smoldering, magnetic Oscar Isaac) listens quietly as Lor San Tekka (Max Von Sydow, as the village elder) gives him a parcel containing the secret location of Luke Skywalker, now in hiding.
#STAR WARS EPISODE VII THE FORCE AWAKENS FULL MOVIE MOVIE#
It’s the “Star Wars” movie we’ve been waiting for, and the one we didn’t know we needed.ĭespite a grand, chilling opening, in which the reformed remnants of the Galactic Empire (here called The First Order) scour the desert planet Jakku 30 years after the events of “Return of the Jedi,” this new trilogy’s central characters are introduced in small, human ways. The result is a “Star Wars” film that intelligently (and shamelessly) refracts the best angles of its predecessors, particularly “Episode IV - A New Hope” and “Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back,” while checking nearly every imaginable box on fans’ wish lists. But the fact that he achieves such breathless velocity so quickly is not just a testament to his hardcore fandom (having seen the original “Star Wars” at the age of 11) but his well-deserved reputation as Hollywood’s reboot master, injecting new life into the “Mission Impossible” and “Star Trek” franchises in recent years. Abrams steers pop-culture’s most beloved sci-fi saga in an exhilarating new direction. * * * ½ stars | Space fantasy | PG-13 | 135 minutesįrom the iconic opening crawl through the wordless last frames of “Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens,” director J.J. Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close Menu