Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens - DCF SPOILER REVIEW

Here I take apart some of the main plot themes in The Force Awakens, character evolutions, questions the film might have created and what I thought about all these along with the entirety of the film all together. I even try to nitpick whatever I can possibly nitpick in the film and I also go into making some comparisons to the classic trilogy to back up my personal score of a 10/10 that I believe SW7 deserves.

This is a spoiler heavy review, if you are after the Spoiler Free review you will find it here.

The rest of you that don't mind spoilers or have seen the film, move along... move along.

We start off our experience in Star Wars The Force Awakens by jumping right into the events after a 30 year period since The Return of the Jedi. The events in which include the death of the Emperor and the victory of the Rebellion against the Empire.

Since then, this victory gave way for a New Republic to be formed. In that time, from the ashes of The Empire has risen a new power known as the First Order.

What main events lead to all this is Kylo Ren and his master, Snoke, that are leading the First Order. What other main events allowed this to happen are Luke Skywalker. Luke trained the son of Leia (his sister) and Han Solo among other students. This student, Ben Solo, turned against Luke with the help and nudge from Snoke as we are told, and overthrew this new Jedi Order. He became Kylo Ren, and Luke in his failure felt responsible for all that happened and went into exile. His exile allowed the First Order to rise, and there we have it.

That is more or less the main story to those 30 years, and The Force Awakens does a great job to reveal just these very things to us. Whatever else went down in that time, is obviously not something that needs to be covered just yet and would complicate things more rather than simplify them.

I cover the details to how this was handled, along with the main plot to Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens, right here, where I also detail the Death of the New Republic along with some other key plot points that might have confused some people. Check it out for an extra read and look into The Force Awakens.

Many see The Force Awakens as a rehash of A New Hope. This is quite true in some ways. We have the resistance looking for a map to Luke Skywalker, they find them, hide them in a Droid on a desert, which comes across our heroine, and her journey begins. Instead of finding a crew to help her out, the original crew helping out the original hero finds her. The character that found the map is taken hostage much like Leia in A New Hope, and tortured a little like Han in The Empire Strikes back. Then we have a new death star, a second abduction, a new rescue mission that is at the same time a "destroy the new Death Star" mission.

Sounds familiar right? Because it is. How much of a good thing this is or isn't is a matter of personal preference.

However, these parallels play out with much difference in them as well. The new "Death Star" mission is as much of ships flying about shooting at things as it is a manner of events that take place on it and on its surface.

There are also many opposites in the rehashing of it all. Rey does not want to embark initially on this journey, Finn wan'ts to run away, Darth I mean Kylo Ren is far from a complete master of the Dark Side, among so much more.

The way some of the themes are used feel very much updated and fresh. The maps to Luke Skywalker for example serve as the driving plot point for everything that is happening more or less, as opposed to the schematics of the Death Star from A New Hope which simply served for a last act of a space battle.

All in all it stands as its own film in the Star Wars galaxy. Taking from the fact that it includes locations that remind us of all the classic films as opposed to A New Hope alone, those locations being Hoth and the Forest Moon of Endor but with lakes now, or a bounty hunter like boarding ship that gives us some bespin feels, it also adds some flavour of its own with the new Resistance planet that looks more like mountainous highlands.

The biggest difference however is the characters and their story. And that is what is the main point to any Star Wars film. And these stories are completely unique without any character feeling like a rehashed version of the old, yet at the same time some similarities and parallels can be made if one wishes it.

Overall, the most important part of a film that should be original, the characters, was completely new and its own thing entirely. Adding up to an experience that felt familiar, but also fresh. (That Starkiller base though...... that was kinda cheesy at this point, this is the third time guys, stop it with round planets blowing things up!)

To finish up however before heading into the characters, lets look at my last list of similarities that actually have their own share of differences even though they are referenced to as being the same by many. And that is the settings in The Force Awakens.

Although they do remind us of settings from all three classic films, there is really only so much you can do with real life locations. I mean seriously, if people want planets with purple trees then they shouldn't have complained about the prequels.

But aside from the similarities that real locations would create, they are so very very different. Jakku is the least different planet of them all, aside from having one sun, it is still a desert. Overall feel and setting in the film? It felt like a scavenger planet, no cities/towns just camps, and aesthetically it has giant star destroyers crashed into it.

The next settings are the First Order structures. They look so much like the classic films, and, that is actually what is perfect about them. What is even better, is that they look a million times more kick ass. Compare the new hanger Poe is brought into at the start to the hanger the Millennium Falcon is brought into A New Hope. Much better indeed.

More on First Order structures is the Starkiller Base interior. Simply brilliant. It is so Star Wars it was amazing, and also so new. We have a little of the Bespin design and feel where Luke and Vader first fight, we have that same feeling of bridges in the middle of nowhere, we get quite a lot of a Death Star feel in there but updated and better, we get some rock formations, we get a lava pit, and compositions that are simply brilliant. The bridge were Han Solo dies was a simply brilliant setting.

Then we have an ice planet on the surface, but not another Hoth. The trees are a dead giveaway as are all the First Order structures.

Then we have Takodana. Forest and lake planet. Reminds of Return of the Jedi, I guess, but that was a forest only planet. Maybe also a little bit of Dagobah which was a forest swamp always at night? It really is its own thing and not another Forest Moon. The city or what it was looked so much like a temple from Yavin too, and something completely new as a setting for the Star Wars films.

Then we have D'Qar, the Resistance planet. Looked like Highlands to me, and something not seen in any of the classic films. It also felt like a planet similar to Earth, that could perhaps have a variety of settings on it.

We had the ship the Millennium Falcon was boarded on, kind of reminiscent of bounty hunter and Bespin material along with so much more, being its own thing again.

And lastly we have the Game of Thrones Isles. Or, something. A water planet with islands all over the place.

Arguably I would say that these are so much more different to the classic films than they are the same. And notice I say classic films because evidently they remind us of settings from all 3 classic films. This is another huge pro for Star Wars The Force Awakens and one of the reasons I like it more than the classic trilogy. We get in one film so many sets and worlds, it truly feels like a Galaxy far far away and not "a long time ago in a planet far far away in a galaxy far far away..."

Oh, I also forgot to mention the small shots we see here and there of the New Republic planets that are destroyed, and that lava planet location we see Luke Skywalker at.

But enough of that, I think by this point it is pretty clear that The Force Awakens, for all its similarities, has also built onto a lot of differences along with creating its own character as a film, expanding on the Star Wars lore quite a bit.

The new characters in The Force Awakens truly shine, and some shine even better because of their connection with the old (Kylo, I'm talking about you).

Lets start with what many believe the new characters depict.

For many, Poe Dameron is the new Han Solo, Rey is the new Luke, Finn is... something something, the new Chewie? And Kylo our new Darth Vader.

Another idea is that Poe, Rey and Finn are all Luke, only three aspects to him. The pilot, the force user, and the one that stands up against evil?

Well, for starters Kylo is indeed the new Darth Vader. Yet still he is nothing like him. He is the successor of the image to Darth Vader and his story is also that , as he himself actually wants to be the new Darth Vader.

As for the rest. Meeeh I don't know. Sure Poe is like the scoundrel type, maybe, I guess? He did get tortured? Perhaps the new pilot for the Falcon? Which is fitting I guess, putting the best pilot the resistance has in our favourite ship in a galaxy far far away. The again, Luke was a pilot too, and Anakin was also the best pilot there was (even if we scratch the prequels, this is still referenced in the classics). Poe also shares his alliance to the resistance as Luke did with the rebellion. Han Solo came around in the end, but he was really a smuggler before that. Not particularly the best pilot, but a quick shot (always first on the trigger) and cunning.

At this point Poe starts to share attributes from a range of characters. Does he not?

Now lets look at Finn. I could argue (if we are playing the game of who is who) that he is the new Lando? And he and Poe become the two new friends like Lando and Han? Maybe HE is Han Solo? A dark past, in a way, and joins the resistance?

And Rey, well she is actually quite the opposite of Luke in many ways really. Besides the obvious (she is a female) she does not want to leave her home, she does not have a family period, she is completely free without harvesting seasons or what not, and evidently does not have the luxury of being part of a pilot academy neither has a family that can pay for Droids to work for them. On the contrary, she scavenges the lands to try and sell things just to make enough for her food.

Were do I stand in all this?

Poe is Poe. He doesn't have to be a new Han Solo or the pilot version of Luke. We are in the Star Wars galaxy, pilots exist.

Finn is Finn. He is an ex-storm trooper taken from his family, has a good heart, and joins the resistance.

And Rey is Rey. She is all the above.

Sure all characters share in similarities with different characters, but they also share differences. I do not want to look at them as successors and don't think this was the intent either. They would definitely have to have characteristics that are based on Star Wars stereotypes, but instead of being born from one specific character I think they are born of many ideas and shaped into their own completely.

This was one of the strongest parts to the new Star Wars film, and the most unique. Whilst it takes its cues from the lore we know, it is shaped into something of its own, and one of the most fun parts of this film all together.

Now having put that aside, similarities and differences, lets get right to the spoiler heavy parts that I wanted to cover in this review.

Kylo Ren.

Kylo was by far my favourite character arc in the entire film. The new villain of Star Wars. The first thing one would do when seeing this masked villain is compare him to Darth Vader. And we should. This is going to be our new bad guy, we need to nitpick the hell out of him naturally.

Did Kylo pay off as the new villain? Will he be able to fill the shoes of Darth Vader? Was showing us his face instead of keeping him behind a mask all the time a wrong decision that humanised him too soon too much? All these are very important questions.

For starters lets talk about his look.

He looks simply badass. I was afraid he wouldn't look as menacing, especially with his hood off. Seeing him with the hood definitely made him look much better in the trailers and posters, but seeing him without it, bare helmet and all... Something was simply not fitting. To be honest I didn't like that look so much, it looked a little goofy to say the least.

Until I saw it in action, from all the angles one should appreciate it from, and it grew on me quite fast. Still wasn't completely sold on the first shot, but it grew on me. It even reminded me a little of Vaders' helmet from behind only better really.

As for character, I think Kylo will be the new Darth Vader just fine. What he lacks in having shown his face he gains in other ways. The helmet being always on creates a cold feeling, it takes away emotion, and it makes us fear more what is behind it. "Darth Vader, he is more machine than man now." And that was frightening indeed.

But, what is even more frightening than a villain with absent feelings, is one with too much of the wrong feelings.

Kylo from the go seems quite menacing. His rage bursts are the first sign of him not being that cool controlled villain that Darth Vader was, but for the most part he does look to be in control. That little rage in a way added a little menace I would say, as it made him feel unstable. And that is another frightening trait for a villain.

Then the masks are off. When he confronts Rey we see his face, and we take a look into his own fears in this scene. The masks are off in this scene for both characters, as Rey reveals her connection to the force, and is a great scene that works both ways.

Kylo Ren without the mask was just as good. It gave us more depth and background to his struggle in the scenes we saw him without the mask, and it made him look weak. And a villain that is weaker is more easy to relate to or understand, as well as more dangerous. That very weakness is what will push such villains that extra distance to gain their strength.

Back to comparisons, Darth Vader seemed sinister, but as soon as we found out he was Lukes father, it all kind of changed. We never really saw him do some really heinous act. His backstory was that he was seduced by the dark side, which victimises him in a way. Kylo on the other hand, he seems to want to be a part of the dark side. It is a choice. He is fighting the light left in him to destroy it, and he seems prepared to do whatever he must to become consumed by the dark side. It is a conscious choice which makes him by far a much more ominous villain.

Seeing him pass his final trial to the dark side, by killing his own father, we have now a villain that is powerful as well as complex and emotionally challenged. This makes him a far more dangerous candidate as he is now, and also for the future when, hopefully, he will become a more controlled evil. Darth Vader never had that much depth, especially not in his first introduction (A New Hope). And yet they managed to do so much with Kylo on his first introduction to us.

The masks are indeed off, and he is a true villain. I can't wait to see what happens with him in the future. Will his end be of redemption in a sense of self sacrifice? Or simply pain and suffering. We will have to wait and see. For now, I couldn't be happier with what they did with him.

Taking this from the end backwards, Reys' performance by the end of the film was quite above her level for many viewers and quite unrealistic.

But was it?

For starters, the most obvious disadvantage Kylo Ren has here is that he just got shot by an energy blaster.... An ENERGY BLASTER people. I mean come on. That thing took out a couple Stormtroopers in one hit, it struck another on the chest and blew him back like a canon (seeing that trooper get blown away like that in the trailer I actually thought that he was shot by an X-Wing, I expected such force to be from something like that) and the film does a great job to set up the power of that thing.

And yet, Kylo Ren shakes it off. He, shakes, it, off! How? Flesh wound, sure, maybe even armour plate, but even so that blast must have really wrecked him and compromised him a lot more than any one is really even noticing. The assumption here is that he is using the force to "power through it" (no pun intended).

The next thing is a small flesh wound from Finn on his arm, which was possible because Kylo, although he is in no position to be playing around and being arrogant (something we get from him stopping the laser beam and holding it there until he leaves, I mean this guy wants to show off his powers and strike fear, which made him even more fun because that's what we would do too if we had the force admit it, we would want to act cool in front of everyone) he is teasing Finn and burning his shoulder and as I said simply playing around with him.

As soon as he is struck we see that he gets angry, stops his games, and doesn't even bother fighting anymore, on the very next strike he tosses the lightsaber out of Finns hands and cuts him down.

The last couple things about Kylo Rens' state in the fight with Rey (as if ALL that isn't enough already) are my assumptions at this point. And that is two events the compromise him emotionally. The first is that he just killed his own father. I can't in my right mind exclude this from his condition. Either if he feels pain, or perhaps even if he feels finally free from his test, both things can compromise him to either let down his guard or not be focussed.

The second thing is Rey. He has already seen that the Force is strong with her. Not only he was not able to read her mind, but, she reads his! That shook him up a lot. It wasn't so much I think his fear which she revealed, as I am assuming that he is well aware of his fears. It is the shock of some untrained force sensitive person being strong enough to simply block him out and go that extra distance to read his mind.

As if that is not enough, Rey overpowers him... she downright overpowers him, when they pull the lightsaber from the ice (great Empire Strikes back nod there by the way). Perhaps he was as I said already, weaker as he is putting all his strength in simply staying alive and being able to walk after that energy blaster hit him, but for whatever reason, I think this compromises him even more.

At this point, Kylo is really not even at 30% of his full capabilities, his fear has taken him, and he is simply open to such a confrontation.

Now looking at Rey and the Force.

Many people say "but Rey was able to do so much in the Force without being trained" and what not. Luke was able to pull that lightsaber ice-grab an entire film later, sure, but he was not trained when he did it. Thats' 1.

2- The force is all about attuning your senses. That is why the lightsaber is the weapon of the Jedi, because only they can use it properly. There is no real physical feat required for it. Training in the lightsaber is training in ones senses and the use of the force really. Rey was a scavenger, we saw that she is more than capable of handling herself with a staff, and probably with any weapon used for hitting at that point. Her "intimidating" character when saving BB-8 is also evidence that she is no pushover whatsoever and gets rough.

3- The Force Has Awakened, that is the point to this film. And as we are seeing, it seems to be more powerful than ever. Darth Vader, arguably the most powerful Jedi and Sith in the Galaxy, could not read Leias' mind to find out where the rebel base was. Neither was he stopping laser shots in mid air (he did deflect some though in Bespin), neither stopping his enemies from moving altogether, neither putting them to sleep.

It is evident that the Force is either awakening in a much more potent way now, or they are simply going the way of making the "new generations" much more powerful in it. Either way, it makes Reys' accomplishments more believable.

By the time this happens, she has already experienced the force multiple times, and we see that she is no ordinary Jedi. Even Luke was nowhere near as sensitive in the Force as she.

4- Luke had no training in the Force period, and yet on his first lessons with the blast helmet, he deflects 3 low powered laser shots. 3! With no training prior to that. Why? Because he simply reached out with his feelings, he simply felt the Force. I would say that those things are a thousand times faster to deflect and defend against than a strike from another lightsaber, and I would say that if he could do that "blindfolded" then that Rey using the force through calming herself and feeling, through simply tuning into the Force, she is more than capable to defeat a broken Kylo Ren.

And he was broken there is no two ways about it. Both emotionally and physically. If I had to keep making assumptions I wouldn't be surprised if his bones were also literally broken during that fight. That was a damn energy blaster people, you don't shake that thing off and walk away.

In this way, I find Reys' first steps in the Force to be wonderfully portrayed in the film, and so fitting with the theme as well. There has been an awakening. And oh yeah, she's feeling it.

Definitely Darth Plagueis, no doubt about it.

Well, I have no idea actually I could be completely wrong, but I am so sold on the idea of him being Darth Plagueis and I will explain why.

One of the similarities comes from the only artwork that I have seen of him, with Palpatine, Darth Sidius, kneeling before him. We see this monstrosity in size of a face looking at him. Darth Plagueis was a master of deceit no doubt. The idea of giant holograms fits with all of this.

His soundtrack theme is also another similarity with Star Wars Revenge of the Sith, the opera scene. This is the first moment we learn of Plagueis. The score/track composed for his theme is quite attuned to that same dark theme we were introduced to there. Whilst the biggest power he had learned was, bringing people back from the dead. Palpatine is amused at the idea that he could not save himself, but perhaps this is what we are lead to believe all up.

As a dark lord, I don't think he would have shown all his cards to his pupil, or pupils. If I was a dark lord and I could bring myself back from the dead, I would never let my students know of this. Why? Well simple villain logic guys, if your equally evil and twisted students know your biggest secret, they can defeat you. Keeping something like this hidden from them protects you the master to begin with. If they do betray you and kill you, then you know were their allegiance lies and you simply come back without them knowing. You then strike, when the time is right, or when you have regained your strength.

All this is speculation at this point, but even the way Snoke looks in The Force Awakens. He looks like he has come back from the dead indeed, that doesn't look like a scar and flesh wound people, that looks like whatever hit him cut right into his skull all the way and has healed or been put together again.

Snoke is also a name that kind of plays along the lines of Smoke and Snake. He is a snake, in hiding, manipulation, and nothing is ever clear with him it seams. He is also shrouded in a veil of smoke, unseen, unknown. And this could very well be his "code name" to both keep in hiding, but also to play on the way others in the story perceive him. His real name is evidently not revealed.

This is like I said, all speculation, but I would be surprised if they make him out to be someone else. Everything points to him being Plagueis. Lets also not forget that he looks old, almost ancient. I doubt that he is some other Sith Lord that no one knew about all this time and suddenly he decides to pop up into existence. Where was he during the classic trilogy? Or before that? Plagueis on the other hand, they knew of him, they simply thought he was dead, and a great candidate for someone coming back to life and revealing himself after all this time at last.

One of the things I did not expect in The Force Awakens was how dark it was. If the second part of the new trilogy can be expected to be the darker of all three films as some speculate, then what the hell are he going to see in Episode 8?

This film was so damn dark at moments and gritty and real. A New Hope was butterflies by comparison.

Looking at the old characters to start off with, Leia and Han being in pain added a sentimental value to the film that was also a heavy one since we knew early on that Kylo Ren was their son. Seeing Kylo do things and knowing this made it hit our hearts a little more I believe. I was thinking "come on man, you are Hans' boy, how could you have fallen so far into the dark side? Not cool man" as we saw Han Solos' boy blow up planets and be all villainous. As he should have been.

Add to that the darkest scene of the film, the Death of Han Solo, and you have a pretty dark film here. Sure, Old Ben Kenobi died in A New Hope too, but I doubt it was the same thing. Not to mention that we hadn't really grown too attached to him, and he was indeed quite old. He sacrificed himself, pretty much, and it was in the end of the second act, pretty much. It wasn't like the build up of what it was for Han Solo, which was the later part of the third act. We had more time to feel for him even without the classic films. Add the classic films into it, and that moment was purely emotional.

Add to it that it wasn't some back and forth talk between an old man and masked villain we barely new at the time, with references we again barely knew, with no connection between them at all at that point, etc. Instead it was father and son, it was more personal, no masks, it was much more emotional even from Kylos' side as we saw him struggle for what he had chosen to do. He wasn't some emotionless dick in a mask that set out to kill an old man. He was conflicted, and as I wrote earlier, a bigger villain for the fact that he feels like he chose the Dark Side more rather than be taken and "seduced" into it, which makes his struggle with the path he has chosen to power even more emotional.

All this really added to the darkness of the scene and film.

Then for all us SW fans, we saw Chewie let out a call as he simply saw his friend just die! Talk about some heavy shit right there.

On other news, the Republic Died. It, all of it, it got destroyed. The 5 panets blown up at the mid of the film was the New Republic. So we pretty much witnessed the day the New Republic died right there, and along with it all the rebel alliance of old fought to achieve lost and gone.

If the next one is to be darker, what can we expect? Torture of children?

This was not in any way a bad thing for The Force Awakens though. And in fact, this is again yet another reason why I like it more than A New Hope. If we are comparing dark emotional moments, I felt more emotional with The Force Awakens than with any classic Star Wars film, not even The Empire Strikes back was that heavy. Sure, he find out that Darth Vader is Lukes' father. That is a shock and plot twist, it is not exactly dark though I would say.

Oh, and Han Solo is frozen in carbonite. But, we knew he was alive the moment it happened. It never actually made me feel anything to be honest. I might have been too small to care about it, I knew he wasn't dead. And when I was older to properly understand what they were going for, I knew Leia saves him and she returns his "I know" response. This leaves The Force Awakens to be on my list for the darkest Star Wars film yet. Well, Revenge of the Sith is pretty much up there, but I know most people don't want to even hear about the prequels much less compare to them.

The film leaves us where Rey at last finds Luke Skywalker, and does a great job to create questions that I do not think are at all breaking the film. They are things that simply did not fit into this story yet or might never fit into it, and were better left untold.

Like, Maz Kanata said, "that is a story for another time" more or less.

The questions remain as to who is Rey. Is she Lukes' offspring? Who is Snoke? What will happen with Kylo Ren? What will happen to the New Republic now that it is destroyed, will it seize to exist or will the remaining allied systems reform it and stand up against the First Order? On smaller scales, how did Maz Kanata get the lightsaber? A lightsaber which, by the way for those not too well versed in the old films and can't remember, was lost on Bespin when Darth Vader cut Lukes' hand off.

But we can also begin to make assumptions too at this point.


Some of the things I was thinking of was the remnant of the Jedi, or new Jedi.

Luke Skywalker we know was training the new order of the Jedi, so we know that there was more than one student present with Ben Solo being the only one revealed. Upon turning on Luke Skywalker, did he manage to kill all the young new Jedi? Or was it more of a he got to kill x amount of his fellow students kind of a thing before Luke stopped him in doing any harm to the rest.

And that makes me wonder, are there any survivors from those students? Which makes me think that perhaps Rey is not his daughter, but an old student. Perhaps he saved the remaining students and sent them on different planets, wiping their memory (we know crazy things are possible, Kylo apparently can make you sleep now and freezes lasers along with people on the spot) in both a means to save them but also to test them. Perhaps his whole plan was not entirely exile, but a test to make sure the next one that comes forth is worthy.

Maybe he recovered the lightsaber himself and gave it to Maz Kanata for safe keeping, choosing her especially as the location is like a crossroad and a possible landing spot for one of his older pupils. Perhaps yet, even, he set his own force energy as a part of that lightsaber and knew that the only way one would be "called to it" is a person both sensitive and strong in the Light Side of the Force.

Speculations all in all really, but these are in no way plot holes to the film. I found the film to be complete in all its glory and the only questions I was left with were ones that I should have (mostly). Speculating at this point at what comes next sure is a lot of fun and we could go at this all day.

I would like to see that story played out though. The remnants of the new Jedi are like 10 students throughout the galaxy, and Rey was one of them. Perhaps the flashback Rey got from the lightsaber was a flashforward, and the fight comes down to being between the Knights of Ren and the new Jedi.

Another idea I was thinking they could play off on is that Rey is indeed Lukes' daughter. Even though we have no indication that he had a spouse or love or anything like that, and even though that whole father daughter mother son thing can feel tiring to a point, if Luke met and fell in love with a female that was also force sensitive, then perhaps that is why Rey is stronger than Kylo as well, being the daughter of TWO force sensitive parents.

We could further speculate that this love of Luke was what started his first teachings, and got him to create the New Jedi Order, and perhaps, Ben Solos' act of evil was killing her off.

Thinking of all this, I have one thing to say for sure. We are living in amazing times guys, Star Wars is back and in full Force (pun intended).

I am really trying here to nitpick on things. They are so small I am having a hard time remembering them. There are some moments in the film were I was thinking "this is something I can nitpick" but really, its like trying to find things wrong with it at this point. And this is always possible, since there is no such thing as a perfect film.

My biggest nitpick of the day was, the Starkiller Base.

Although I loved how this time around it was used for something important, that it was not just a Death Star and it was used for more plots, looked different and what not, I still can't shake off the fact that, its another big planet blowing up other planets. I mean come evil guys, this is the third time you tried this. Take a hint, it does not bode well to create stations (they will always have a weakness) or planets that gather the energy of the sun. You would think that someone would have figured earlier on that something like that could be really unstable if something goes wrong even without an attack on the Starkiller base. It seems they simply don't learn. How they manage anything is beyond me.

I was hoping that this was going to be their new base of operations, an actual planet with a base infrastructure that enforced the planet to make it even more indestructible and that this was the place were all their new armies would be gathered and set forth from.

I also almost hoped that this red light bulb on it was a shield generator. It would have been the logical thing to do rather than once more focus on making another offensive "FIRIN MY LAZAAAH" planet.

Other small things to nitpick.

Why did Poe rush off? Ok, you split up, then you completely abandon your mission and fly back to the resistance without finding BB-8? (Maybe he found out they escaped, but that is speculation, they should have better explained what happened there).

How does Kylo Ren have the rest of the map???

Leia knows Rey? She sees her for the first time, but yeah I can assume that she heard all about her from Finn so, maybe I guess.

Maz Kanata hands over the lightsaber to Finn. How does she trust him? Why trust him? He is a "runner" right? Just, hope he gives it to Rey? And that whole lightsaber scene felt rushed, I was not too cool with the pace of it. Rey saying I want no part in this was probably the single acting moment I did not like, it felt abrupt. I would have liked her to show us that she was making a collection of thoughts that drove to that reaction rather than burst out with fear on the spot and start running off. That whole lightsaber scene felt really rushed and out of pace.

Perhaps it was also because of the context, they were indeed rushed, but it all felt like it was a rush even at points that it shouldn't have been. When Rey runs off, the First Order has not arrived yet.

Maz Kanata saying "that's a story for another time" was the perfect thing to do right there, but it also added a little more to the rush of the scene.

Captain Phasma was downplayed, a lot.

Well the rehashes can be seen as a nitpick, but not for me, I liked them. Whilst Phasma hardly felt like a character I even care seeing more of to be honest. Even the scenes were we had her prescense, she didn't feel as intimidating. I think her voice is what annoyed me. Not because I don't like her voice, but because even the Storm troopers in their helmets sound different. I would have liked a more robotic adaptation to her voice, make her less human and more menacing. Then I would be on board with her character and maybe even see her as the new possible Boba Fett.

I think she was poorly handled, which also begs the question, what happened to her, how did she escape (because I doubt she died) and why all this downplaying? Is it perhaps to make her not be a part of the First Order in the next films, making her indeed more like a Boba Fett like character?

Oh, and the part were Rey is tuning into the force... Kylo Ren felt as if he was conveniently sitting there looking at and waiting for Rey to find her way into the force to defeat him it seemed. But, again one can argue that he was waiting for her to chose if she wanted to join him or not.

Really, who am I kidding though? All these problems, questions, and what not, are so minor and small that they barely change the experience of the film to be honest. Nitpicking at it for me is just proving that indeed nothing is perfect and everything has room for improvement, but not that the film was not great. It was stellar to say the least, quite simple.

The only thing that truly bothered me was the Starkiller base firing lasers around. That is all. The rest is just too small to even be noticed at times. The film still stands at high praises from me, and remains, for me, the best Star Wars film to date.

Why? Well lets keep this short.

In technical terms, it looks far better than any Star Wars to date.

In pacing terms, despite some really small problems here and there, it has the best pace any Star Wars film has to date.

A New Hope pace - Droid is sent on Tatooine, chased by the Empire, Hero saves the princess, they escape, the rebellion blows up the Death Star. Those are hardly enough story elements and plots to make it anywhere near The Force Awakens and the pacing of all this is quite slow to take up the entirety of a film.

The Empire Strikes Back - Dagobah is a range of scenes I absolutely love. But from a film standpoint, they did slow the pace down a lot, as did Bespin.

Return of the Jedi - Jabbas' palace was too long. Then the whole "lets befriend the locals" on the Forest Moon of Endor was too long. The rest was ok.

In terms of settings, it had almost as many settings as all three classic films in one. And they all worked instead of feeling shoehorned in there. Need I say more?

In terms of character development, the villain is fleshed out more than Darth Vader ever was in a single film alone from the classics, and the rest of the characters had a great development too. With so much going on, its a wonder how they managed any of that at all. Meanwhile I still think it deals with deeper and more touching themes at this point, as it also has the advantage of giving us Han, Leia and Luke (although Luke was a plot point and an ending) to make the character side of the film even more complete.

In terms of the scenes that were rehashed or remade, they were actually better than the originals and didn't linger too long, and at the same time more was going on for the runtime of the film. It was a fast paced film that at the same time was not action alone but filled of story and character development.

Lightsaber duels, for a duel with untrained heroes, it was wonderfully shot and filmed. Again, I dare say better than any of the originals but for sure the duel of Luke and Vader (both duels but especially the second one) were much better in terms of emotion. Definitely better duel than the one we got in A New Hope though.

And that is by just taking a quick shot at it.

I think at this point that it is nostalgia that can set the classic films for most people on a higher ranking than SW7, but I believe or at least for my liking, if I pick at it without any bias, SW7 was by far the better film put together than any one of those other three, and it stands at the moment for me as one of the best SW films to date.

This does not mean I won't be still enjoying the classics, as there are some scenes in them that simply made history and will never be, as scenes alone, second to none (Binary Sunset anyone? such a simple scene, and such a timeless one). And hell, I can't wait to see them again now back to back with SW7 right there after them. But SW7 has done something I was not expecting. It made me a child again, and it done the impossible. It brought back that galaxy far far away, expanded it, and made it better than I had ever seen or experienced it before.

Job well done!

And once again, that is all from the DCF for now. Till next time... may the force be with you all ;)