Before I saw it for the first time, I thought I knew what was going to happen because I had listened to a podcast from Pop Culture Leftovers where the hosts attempted to piece together the entire movie after a careful dissection of every second of the trailers and every rumor that had come out thus far, including some dubious production photo/script "leaks" (click here to listen to that episode).
They got alot right, but they also got a bunch of things WRONG, and the movie was so much better than I expected.
The visual effects were dazzling and the acting was great, especially by the two new young leads, Daisy Ridley and John Boyega - their real names even sound like they belong in the Star Wars universe.
The movie never felt like a rip-off of the original 1977 classic, even though there were plenty of homages to that movie throughout, right down to cameo appearances by aliens and robots from that movie, which I didn't mind at all. All of the new characters were interesting, including the new villain Kylo Ren, who aspires to be just like his grandfather Darth Vader.
The only thing I didn't like about the experience was that it felt like SO MANY character and plot details are left unanswered, and that it'll be a 2-year wait until the next movie! Oh well, it's Ok though. One of the marks of a great movie is that it leaves you wanting more after it is over.
With Harrison Ford, Max Von Sydow, Oscar Issac.
