OPINION: The Force Awakens is the Star Wars film we need
The look, the feel, the sound, the characters, the planets, the story – it was everything about the Star Wars I loved as a child.
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STAR Wars: The Force Awakens is everything I have ever wanted a Star Wars film to be.
The look, the feel, the sound, the characters, the planets, the story - it was everything about the Star Wars I loved as a child.
I don't want to spoil it for those who have not seen it, but there are a large number of similarities between The Force Awakens and the 1977 original A New Hope.
The aptly-named Starkiller Base, the tight band of Resistance fighters taking on the might of a much-larger foe, the unlikely nobody tucked away in a far corner of the galaxy becoming one of the main characters - it all harkens back to that first adventure in the Star Wars galaxy.
The return of Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Princess-turned-General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) was already much-publicised, but to see them together on the screen sent chills up the spine.
Even as great as the similarities between films and the return of old friends, it was the new brigade that made this film so good.
Daisy Ridley (Rey), John Boyega (Finn) and Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron) are the perfect vehicles to carry the franchise into the future, while Adam Driver's Kylo Ren has potential to be a great bad guy.
BB-8 became everyone's second-favourite droid behind R2-D2, while C-3PO's return left the audience in stitches.
General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson), Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie) and the mysterious Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis) join Kylo Ren as our main bad guys as part of the First Order.
There is a striking resemblance between the way General Hux's address to the First Order was presented compared to that of Hitler's speeches during World War II.
The flags, the power of the speech and the salute - it is impossible not to immediately identify Hux as being a very bad guy who could wreck some serious havoc.
Captain Phasma and Snoke remain shrouded in secrecy but there could be a chance to explore them both more in future instalments.
There is so much more I want to write but I am that scared of spoiling the film I might leave it for another time.
I am more than happy to see it is easily the best Star Wars film of the last 30 years, and could be the second-best in the entire series so far (Empire Strikes Back will take some beating).
Originally published as OPINION: The Force Awakens is the Star Wars film we need
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