Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Rated PG-13
Running time: 135 Minutes
Click below to watch a movie trailer of Star Wars: The Force Awakens from YouTube.
In Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the old generation meets the new in this Star Wars sequel.
The seventh installment of the Star Wars series, the movie takes place thirty years after Star Wars: Return of the Jedi - and released thirty-two years after Return of the Jedi, thirty-eight years after Star Wars: A New Hope. Produced, Written, along with Lawrence Kasdan, and Directed by J.J. Abrams, Based on Characters Created by George Lucas, this is a worthy successor to the Star Wars legacy and the first of a new trilogy. With the transition of Lucasfilm over to Disney, Lucas stated that this was a way to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. The movie has all the elements of a Star Wars film including the original cast and I felt that the movie has more action and more story in this movie than in the other movies. I think that is mainly because, not only does the movie have the feeling of the original trilogy, the movie also has the feeling of the Star Wars Expanded Universe.
Thirty years after Return of the Jedi - Luke Skywalker/Mark Hamill, the last Jedi has disappeared. The First Order has risen from the fallen Galactic Empire seeks to eliminate Luke/Hamill and the Republic. The Resistance, led by Luke's twin Sister Leia Organa/Carrie Fisher opposes The First Order while looking for Luke/Hamill.
Meanwhile, former stormtrooper Finn/John Boyega escapes the First Order with the help of pilot Poe Dameron/Oscar Isaac and crash on a desert planet - where Finn meets scavenger Rey/Daisy Ridley as they continue to escape from the First Order with the help of Han Solo/Harrison Ford and get to the Resistance with a map to find Luke/Hamill.
I saw this movie at a 9:00 am Saturday showing opening weekend and the theater was packed. The audience reacted positively to the movie and cheered when the Star Wars logo appeared. They also cheered when Han Solo/Harrison Ford as well as the Millennium Falcon appeared. While the original cast appeared in the movie, the movie definitely is the film of the new generation - Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac. Nonetheless, Harrison Ford received top billing in the movie - his first time for a Star Wars film, as well as being the first non-Jedi character to be credited first in the series.
It was wonderful to hear John Williams music during the opening title crawl. I knew I was finally watching a Star Wars movie after all these years when I heard the music. Not only does the movie has new music like Rey's theme, but the movie also uses familiar music like Luke's theme. Just hearing the full 90 piece orchestra and 24-voice men's chorus made me feel like a teenager again experiencing a Star Wars movie. There were times where I teared up a little during the movie as well as yelling YES during some of the scenes.
The aerial battles and the ground battles were incredible for me and felt more realistic when done on planet as compared to being done out in space. Watching in 3D - while I blinked a couple of times with debris flying out at me - at times the aerial and space battles felt like watching a video game to me. The stormtroopers were more ruthless and deadly than in the previous movies, especially one particular stormtrooper. I am looking forward to how the filmmakers are going to treat Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which is coming out in 2016 and is supposed to be more of a war movie than a space movie.
There are more new aliens, although most of them were not major characters. The movie does have some subtitles for an alien language that was spoken.
The droid BB-8 is an actual droid created by Disney Research and not CGI and seven different BB units were used in the film with the actors. It was wonderful to see BB-8 in action and definitely had a personality and felt like the new R2-D2 for the movie. The movie used more practical miniature models and real locations rather than CGI to make it aesthetically closer to the original trilogy. Interestingly enough, at $200 million dollars, this is the highest budgeted Star Wars film so far.
While this is the second Star Wars film that is released in IMAX, this is the first film using IMAX cameras on some scenes during filming. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is being shown on every IMAX screen in North America for four straight weeks.
By the time the movie was over, you definitely get the feeling that there will be more stories to tell and more movies - and it has been announced that everyone will be back for the sequel, Star Wars: Episode VIII.
At the end of the movie the audience applauded.
J.J. Abrams Director's credit as with all the other credits appeared at the end of the movie, just like in all of the other Star Wars movies.
At $100 million, Star Wars: The Force Awakens broke the record for pre-sales, breaking the previous pre-sale record holder The Dark Knight Rises three times over which had $25 million in pre-sales as well as initially crashing the ticket selling websites after starting ticket sales. It also had a record breaking $57 million from Thursday night "previews" and the first film to gross more than $100,million in a "single" day, the fastest to $100 million. This is significant as this is the first live-action Star Wars movie released in December with the widest December release while all the previous movies had been released in the month of May. As of 2015, Star Wars: The Force Awakens holds the record for highest grossing opening weekend at $215 million. Click this link from Box Office Mojo for more domestic records that Star Wars: The Force Awakens broke.
After twelve days, Star Wars: The Force Awakens became the fastest movie to reach $1 billion dollars.
Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 135 Minutes.
Pancho
All people smile in the same language.
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