This review of Star Wars: The Force Awakens is 100% spoiler free. With that comes the possibility that chunks of it’ll seem quite mystical if you haven’t seen the film, as I’m not even going to reference character names or reveals in the trailer – but spoiler free is spoiler free, right?
Let’s get one thing out of the way first: I grew up with Stars Wars all around me. It’s still with me now (there’s an AT-AT walker to my right as I scribble this). So if you’re looking for an unbiased, emotionally distant review of Episode VII, you’re not going to get it here. Then again, if you’re reading reviews for Episode VII on a site like this, you’re either lost, or not looking for an outsider’s perspective…
The short version goes a little like this: The Force Awakens is a great action-adventure space opera romp. It’s also a good (but noticeably imperfect) film. Does it capture the feel of the original trilogy? Yes. Is it better than the prequels? Goodness, yes. Is it as good as the original trilogy? Yes and no. I’ll try to explain that last one in a moment, but let’s get into a few details before I do that.
