Star Wars: The Force Awakens

A series continued thirty years later. Luke Skywalker has disappeared. Both the resistance and the newly built order are looking for him, and part of a map is inside a droid. Rey scavenges on a desert planet. She is waiting for her family and does not want to leave. Finn is a soldier. On his first assignment he refuses the order and runs. Escaping with the droid, the two of them board an old ship, and the ship turns out to be familiar. From there the film is a chase. A smuggler's ship, a bar, a forest planet and a weapon. What the narrative is interested in is not a new story but a handover: the film introduces the old characters to the new ones and puts a father and son line at the centre. Kylo Ren is not the genre's usual villain. He cannot control his anger, chose his own mask, and behaves in imitation of an example. Its clearest weakness is structure. The narrative largely repeats the skeleton of the first film, which was the most discussed criticism at release. The production deliberately went back to hand-made imagery. It was shot on film, the sets were built, the droid was made as a working machine in front of the camera, and the desert sections were shot in Abu Dhabi. There was an accident during shooting. Harrison Ford broke his leg under a door on set and production was paused. It reached the highest North American box office figure to that date. Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher are in the cast. J. J. Abrams directed. Who it is for: anyone who wants to come back to the series; the film is fast and audience-friendly. Who it is not for: anyone looking for originality; the narrative follows a familiar road on purpose.