Monday 21 December 2015

Review: Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

I’ve been in hiding for nearly a week now, avoiding Star Wars spoilers, but last night I finally got to experience The Force Awakens. I use the word experience because that’s truly what it was! I won’t discuss any major plot points here, but if you haven’t seen the movie yet I strongly recommend you don’t read my post (or anyone else's!) before you have, because it’s so much better walking in blind.

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Have you ever tried staying away from the internet, your blog, and all social media for 5 days? It’s awful to admit, but it was so difficult! By last night though, I had to remind myself to actually bring my phone with me. It was kind of redundant at that point!

If you read my post last week, you'll know that around this time last month I started watching the Star Wars series for the first time. I’ve always been that person who grunts ‘ugh’ whenever the subject is brought up, and when my family decided that The Force Awakens had to be our Christmas movie this year, I reluctantly decided I should probably watch the movies so I at least had an idea of what was going on. What I didn’t expect was to be so sucked in by it all, or to be stood in the cinema lobby literally shaking with excitement!

Speaking of the cinema lobby...I want to publicly thank the Cineworld in Broad Street for their incredible hospitality. 4 days after the opening night I wasn’t expecting anything, but as we came up the escalator to the IMAX lobby, we were met with staff handing out posters, and 2 stormtroopers on guard duty of every door, posing for everyone and taking photos. It was incredible, and I felt like a kid again. Here are some of our photos!




Life doesn't get much better than getting a selfie with a stormtrooper...I'm just ashamed that I was so giddily happy I just grinned like an idiot!

So, let’s not talk plot, but all the things I loved about The Force Awakens. Firstly, after far too many adverts and trailers, that screen with ‘A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away’ following by the deafening ‘Baa, badaba, ba...etc etc’ got the whole audience giddy with excitement. Everyone in that room was either being elbowed by their companion, or they were the ones lashing out with their elbows. I was one of the victims. Ouch.

Stormtroopers! Sadly, the First Order didn’t have a budget to provide them with better armour, or provide them with target practice, but they have never been cooler, and one in particular was amazing in hand to hand combat! The stormtroopers are my absolute favourites in the entire series (I tend to favour the underdogs) so I was so excited to see them again.

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BB8 is the cutest little droid I’ve ever seen. I want one! Everyone should have their own little BB8. It’s quite amazing how much of a personality he has, expressed solely through beeps and the movement of his head. It was almost like a Baymax moment when he gave Finn the thumbs up!

Force powers. I felt a little worried for the smaller children when Kylo Ren used the force as a torture device, I think a 12 year old me would have a few nightmares after that. Nonetheless, my favourite moment of the whole movie might just be Rey attempting a ‘These aren’t the droids you’re looking for’ moment. It was brilliant!

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Ugh, honestly I could carry on gushing, but you’ve seen it for yourself, so you know what I’m going to say. My only gripe was the fact that I left the cinema with more questions than I went in with, but all that’s really done is made me more hyped for the next movie! I’ve got over a year now of debating with anyone who will listen who Rey’s parents are.

I really don't even want to score this movie right now! I hate giving out 10s, I like to think that there's always room for improvement...but my judgement is so clouded right now. Consider this a placeholder score!


16 comments:

  1. Yess I loves this so much too. Can it be on DVD already so I can watch it over and over?

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    1. Ugh, tell me about it! I've spent too much time on Tumblr consuming every GIF I can find to keep me going, ha!
      - Allie

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  2. Hi Allie! Glad you loved this but I agree w/ you that I left the cinema with more questions than I went in with, but it seems expected when it comes to SW movies. You're right it was tough trying to avoid spoilers, man I'd have been pissed if I knew who Kylo's dad was, for example. Glad we can move on now, I'm eager to talk about movies other than Star Wars in the new year! :)

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    1. Oh exactly. For all I can complain about my questions, I think I'd complain more if everything was wrapped up in a neat little parcel! There was an eerie silence and a few quiet gasps in my cinema screen when Kylo's dad was revealed!
      - Allie

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  3. Gush, girl...GUSH!!! Loved this review so much. All the personal touches, the photos, the gushing, the placeholder score...all of it!

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    1. I could have gushed for another 1,000 words but you'd never make it to the comments section, ha! I'll try to form an actual review soon!
      - Allie

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  4. Great review. I loved this movie so much. All I want to do is "gush as well, and I'm not even a huge Star Wars guy.

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    1. I can't really believe how quickly I converted, ha! My littlest brother went in expecting to hate it but the look on his face at the end was priceless, he loved it :)
      - Allie

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  5. wow! such a great review for an amazing movie. good job (as always)!!!

    glad you also loved it!

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    1. Thanks Rob! This is the first movie in a long time I've wanted to rewatch over and over again :)
      - Allie

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  6. Told you so! It gets better the more we see it! I'm so glad that it finally made a great point to Star Wars saga.

    - Paskalis // sinekdoks.com

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    1. I'm still trying to find someone to see it with me for the third time haha!
      - Allie

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  7. This thing was GREAT. I'm a Star Wars junkie and I went in very skeptical. But Abrams blew my mind with his appreciation for the classic SW films while also laying some great groundwork for the future. It holds a pretty prominent spot on my recently posted Top 10 of 2015 list. Soooo good.

    Loved the review.

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    1. It's so cool to hear such praise from the older fans. Older as in...fan since the originals...not older as in age...haha. I'm just trying to work out now where to place it in my Top Movies of 2015!
      - Allie

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  8. Great review! I've now seen it twice and it certainly improves on rewatch - the first time around it's just all happening so fast that I forgot to take some of it in!

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    1. That's exactly how I felt! I spent the whole time thinking 'this is amazing, but what happens next?!' and so it was so much nicer to be able to enjoy each moment for what it was the secondition time around :)
      - Allie

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