Finally got around to watching The Force Awakens and I'll admit to being pleasantly surprised. I had been half expecting Disney to make a total pigs ear of the franchise but this is a promising start. The new additions to the cast work well and I'm curious to see where the character development goes with them. Killing off a major character was always going to be a risky idea, even when the actor in question wanted it done but the scene played out well. The action set pieces were all well done and didn't lose the feel of the original trilogy.
There have been complaints that this was just a rehash of episode 4 and to be fair you can see more than a few similarities between the 2 films. From the force sensitive heroine coming from a desert world to the rehash of the death star trench run but it works with the new storyline.
The only part of the film which I think could have been done better was Luke's appearance at the end. There is meant to be this powerful scene when having located him he turns around and the heroine hands him his lightsabre. THe only problam was that as soon as he turned around and revealed his face my immediate reaction was "BLOODY HELL!!! OLIVER REED IS A JEDI!!" Whoever decided that the character needed that beard to look old and wise needs to go to specsavers.
