{"id":2432,"date":"2016-01-07T20:56:34","date_gmt":"2016-01-08T04:56:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=2432"},"modified":"2016-01-07T20:56:34","modified_gmt":"2016-01-08T04:56:34","slug":"the-force-awakens-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/the-force-awakens-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Space fights never felt so good"},"content":{"rendered":"<pre>By: Declan Hertel\r\nEntertainment Editor<\/pre>\n<p>This movie kind of transcends the need for a review. I guess the only reason you might want to read criticism is if you wanted to know if it goes the way of the much-maligned prequels.<\/p>\n<p>Ladies and gentlemen, it does not.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Force Awakens\u201d is really great.<\/p>\n<p>The thing about the prequels is that George Lucas wanted to make \u201cStar Wars\u201d different. He wanted to move it beyond the lighthearted, action-packed, Saturday morning serial-inspired films that they were by introducing diplomacy and trade negotiations. While those things can be engaging and exciting (see: the \u201cStar Trek\u201d TV shows), they\u2019re not Star Wars.<\/p>\n<p>This is what is great about \u201cThe Force Awakens:\u201d it is made by people who grew up with the original Star Wars, and they know what made it so near and dear to their hearts. The fact is, it doesn\u2019t take itself or its world terribly seriously, and doesn\u2019t try to be hard sci-fi or an adult political drama. It\u2019s a story of ACTION and ADVENTURE in SPACE! It\u2019s got massive spaceship dogfights! It\u2019s got adorable robots! It\u2019s got battles with SWORDS MADE OF LIGHT! It\u2019s full of wisecracking, swashbuckling heroes! It\u2019s fun! It\u2019s space fantasy of the highest degree! The original trilogy was awesome then, and it is awesome now. THIS is why. THIS is what \u201cThe Force Awakens\u201d remembers about Star Wars, and what it executes with perfection.<\/p>\n<p>All the series newcomers turn in excellent performances. Daisy Ridley and John Boyega\u2019s Rey and Finn are characters that I will follow anywhere through the galaxy. Adam Driver\u2019s Kylo Ren is an intriguing new masked villain. Seeing the familiar faces of the original trilogy was a delight. I loved everything about this movie.<\/p>\n<p>I would have said that this is a movie near exclusively for fans of the series, based on a great deal of humor coming from references to the previous films, but then a friend of mine who had never seen any Star Wars loved it. This is the sign of a good reboot. Totally enjoyable and accessible by newcomers to the franchise, but dripping with fanservice for those who have stuck with it all this time. I applaud all those involved with \u201cThe Force Awakens;\u201d I think you did us longtime Star Wars fans proud, and created many, many new ones in the process.<\/p>\n<p>Now, a franchise as big as Star Wars is going to have people going to the theatre, many of whom are longtime fans, who hate the movie before they walk in. At this point in its release, you, dear reader, have probably heard them espousing their bitter opinions. I would like to recommend that you don\u2019t listen to those people and go see the movie for yourself. Maybe you\u2019ll like it, maybe you won\u2019t, but don\u2019t let someone who hates movies tell you to hate this one.<\/p>\n<p>But as for my verdict, \u201cStar Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens\u201d is really, really great. If you haven\u2019t seen it already, ohmygod do it now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This movie kind of transcends the need for a review. I guess the only reason you might want to read criticism is if you wanted to know if it goes the way of the much-maligned prequels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":825,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/825"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2432\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}