I had not intended to see the new Star Wars film until it came out on DVD. I've never been a huge Star Wars person. I like the original trilogy but the prequels pretty much ruined this franchise for me. The Empire is no more. In its place, the First Order has set about on Empire business. The first task is to locate a resistance fighter named Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) who has found a map said to lead to legendary Jedi Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). Sith apprentice Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) tracks the map to the planet Jakku and captures Dameron. However, the snarky pilot has already secreted it in his droid, a BB-8 unit that winds up wandering the desert until it meets a local parts scavenger named Rey (Daisy Ridley). Meanwhile, a Stormtrooper (John Boyega) violates his programming by rescuing Dameron and returning to the planet. After crashing and separating from Dameron, the stormtrooper runs into Rey and convinces her he is part of the Resistance. They steal a beat up old ship, which is subsequently recovered by its original pilot: a cranky old smuggler and his Wookie co-pilot. Han Solo (Harrison Ford) sees something special in the two youngsters and takes them down the path to their destiny.
This is a much more worthy successor to the Star Wars name. There are no pointlessly annoying sidekicks, it doesn't focus too much on only one character arc, and it leaves the mysteries of the Force intact. It does its job as an opening salvo to a new series of movies. Not being particularly original in how it achieves this is balanced by strongly acted performances from all the main characters.
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