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Even if You Hate What Followed, The Force Awakens Is Still Great Star Wars

 18/12/2025 3 Views

Ten years ago this week, a new era of Star Wars kicked into gear with the debut of Episode VII in the series. Given the drama that would follow in the years since, as far as the fan reactions and debates that have accompanied most other Star Wars releases, it may be hard to believe it, but… everyone was pretty damn happy after they saw The Force Awakens!

Look, obviously there is literally no movie in human existence about which everyone is on the same page, and Star Wars especially has simply been too big and too popular for too long to ever have a uniform reaction to anything new. But still, between the reviews and initial audience response, it was clear that the majority felt like there was a lot to enjoy about The Force Awakens, and a lot to be optimistic about going forward.

Then The Last Jedi came out, and, well, people are still losing their minds arguing about that movie, which has to be one of the most divisive films in the history of major Hollywood franchises. The Rise of Skywalker got the fandom a bit more back on the same page… except that page was that most viewers seemed to be at best indifferent if not outright unhappy about what that conclusion to the Star Wars sequel trilogy had to offer.

That makes the tenth anniversary of The Force Awakens land differently than it might, because it’s understandably forever connected to the two films that followed it in this particular trilogy. And if you didn’t like where those films went – and so many didn’t – it’s easy to think negatively about the entire sequel trilogy as a whole.

But The Force Awakens is still a really strong Star Wars movie; it has its notable flaws, to be sure, but the positives far outweigh the negatives. Rewatching the movie this month, I was struck by how much fun I was once again having, and how much it holds up. So grab some portions from Unkar Plutt, and read on for what makes The Force Awakens work!

Recapturing Those Star Wars Vibes

With The Force Awakens, co-writer and director J.J. Abrams and his collaborators were clearly trying to atone for where the prequel trilogy had gone wrong by delivering things fans had been missing in those films… some would even say to a fault (we’ll get to that). But overall, it remains very impressive and gratifying how The Force Awakens managed to truly feel like Star Wars in a way that no live-action project in the franchise had accomplished since Return of the Jedi 22 years before.

Yes, a big part of that is in the visual approach, with a return to far more actual locations, physical sets, and characters brought to life via puppetry, elaborate makeup, and costumes, as opposed to George Lucas leaning so heavily on digital environments and characters for so much of what was on screen in the prequels. To be clear, this isn’t a case where things were completely opposite on either end; after all, the prequels did still use some awesome miniatures, physical sets, and real life locations for many elements. And, clearly, The Force Awakens is also packed with terrific, highly realistic digital effects. But just look at the opening scene of The Force Awakens and how much more effective and immersive it is to see a group of real people wearing real Stormtrooper outfits vs. the completely digital Clone Troopers in the prequels – always one of the more egregious examples of Lucas turning to digital creations in a distracting and unnecessary manner. There is a stark contrast, with The Force Awakens approach innately more inviting and more at home for Star Wars.

Beyond the visual language of the movie feeling so much more welcoming, one other major strength of The Force Awakens is in how its main characters behave, and how they interact with one another. Abrams got his start on TV, and one thing his shows prior to Force Awakens – including Felicity, Alias, and Lost – have in common is that they are very well cast and have strongly defined, likeable characters at their core. This talent has served Abrams well throughout his career, including in The Force Awakens, where he assembled a wonderfully talented young cast and effortlessly establishes their characters as an engaging, charismatic group you enjoy watching. Daisy Ridley’s Rey, John Boyega’s Finn, and Oscar Isaac’s Poe all quickly make you want to spend more time with them and see what’s in store for their characters. Where the prequels had nearly every character speak in oddly stilted, formal language, these people sound like, well, people, letting you buy into the bonds that form between, say, Finn and Poe or Finn and Rey (Finn’s just making friends left and right, honestly).

The Force Awakens managed to truly feel like Star Wars in a way that no live-action project in the franchise had accomplished since Return of the Jedi.

There’s a lot of nice little character moments throughout the movie, from genuinely funny banter (“That’s not how the Force works!”) to small exchanges or observations. When Rey, who’s been raised on a desert planet, first arrives on a planet filled with foliage, her awed reaction – ”I didn’t know there was this much green in the whole galaxy” – is a sweetly human one, adding an appreciated touch to a universe where often characters seem to be pretty blasé about experiencing an entirely new environment unlike anything they’ve ever seen before.

Harrison Ford and Han Solo: Awesome Again!

Prior to The Force Awakens, the thought of Harrison Ford playing Han Solo again actually had many filled with trepidation, myself included. After all, Ford had long made it clear he wasn’t exactly a Star Wars super-fan, clearly appreciating what George Lucas and the series had done for his career while also having little investment in the story being told… and having famously suggested Han Solo be outright killed off in Return of the Jedi, feeling there was nothing else left of interest to do with the character.

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On top of that, during the years between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, Ford’s public persona had gradually become an easy-to-parody grump – a semi-muttering, often seemingly disinterested guy we saw in talk show interviews, which began to bleed over into a feeling he was rarely giving his all in his performances any more. So it was easy to fear that when he came back as Han, it would feel incredibly insincere and like a hollow shell of the character audiences fell in love with.

Instead, as it turned out, Ford was really great in Force Awakens! In many ways, he felt like a newly revitalized actor, bringing with him all of the wit, charm, and not-so-hidden depth that made Han – and Ford in turn – beloved in the first place. It wasn’t just a huge relief; it was vital to the movie, with Han’s prominent role being more than justified by the legendary actor living up to his own legend once more.

Yes, it was sad to learn Han and Leia were no longer together, and how their marriage fell apart after their son, Ben, had fallen to the Dark Side. But Ford made sure we saw the regret on Han’s face about all that occurred, even while he forged a really touching surrogate parent-and-child bond with Rey that I found especially effective on this most recent rewatch. Here’s a girl who grew up without a parent, and a parent who’s essentially lost his child, and we see a genuine connection grow between them that each desperately needs.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Premiere

All of this, of course, makes it all the more upsetting when Han is killed by his own son, Kylo Ren – the man who was once Ben Solo. While the death of any iconic hero will always have some pushback, Ford plays Han’s final moments just right, from the way he pleads with Kylo Ren to come back with him, to how he lovingly touches his son’s face even after he’s been mortally wounded by him.

In the years since The Force Awakens, Ford has continued to not only give many wonderful performances, but maintained a notably more upbeat, accessible attitude in his media appearances. Maybe all it took was stepping foot on the Millennium Falcon again to put the pep back in Harrison’s step!

The First Order’s Empire Echoes Make an Impact

Yes, The Force Awakens leans more heavily into the iconography of the original trilogy than it needs to, but the depiction of the First Order as a group who are mimicking everything they can about the Empire, including the look of their vehicles and their uniforms (as they likewise bring back the Empire’s attempt at galactic domination), always felt like something that made sense when looking at our real world. Unfortunately, and somewhat chillingly, this only feels more genuine a decade later.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Costume Concept Art

Seeing members of a new generation take on the mantle, beliefs, and imagery of a hate-filled group from the past? Yeah, that sadly tracks. The fact that our main onscreen representatives of the First Order are Kylo Ren and General Hux, two guys who read as a hell of a lot younger and less confident than Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin did, also feels appropriate. We never get Hux’s backstory in the films, but it’s easy to imagine the sort of crappy upbringing and hateful holonet media a guy like him might have been consuming to make him into this genocidal brat.

The Nazi imagery for the Empire was clear from the start in Star Wars, but Abrams goes even further with the echoes here for the First Order, especially in Hux’s big speech. The idea that a bunch of people are buying into what he’s selling sadly resonates even more now than when the film opened.

Alright, Let’s Deal With What Doesn’t Work

So where do these echoes of the past go too far? Well, as much as the First Order specifically trying to look like the Empire feels appropriate, it’s notably forced that the Resistance in turn just looks like the Rebel Alliance with a few tweaks. These guys are still using X-Wings as their main combat starfighters? Come on, change that up! It’s been a few decades; let some of the original trilogy elements go, and show us that for those representing the light side, there actually has been progress. Hell, let’s give Poe and his fellow pilots some new uniforms that aren’t so similar to the orange ones Luke and his buddies wore. Everything doesn’t need to look like what came before. A cool thing about the prequels was how different the ships looked from the original trilogy, and how even when they began to introduce visual elements we’d recognize – like how the cockpits on the Jedi Starfighters in Episode III resembled those on a TIE Fighter – it wasn’t just the same exact ship, design-wise.

And then there’s Starkiller Base, which is just a dud. I’ve never had an issue with the basics of Rey’s situation mimicking Luke’s for a simple reason – George Lucas already did this when he introduced young Anakin Skywalker, and we learned he too started out as a nobody on a desert planet. So having all three trilogies introduce their protagonist this way? Sure, let’s do it, because it’s now a fun recurring element. As a great man once said, it’s like poetry; it rhymes.

But The Phantom Menace doesn’t also lead towards a showdown with a Death Star like the original Star Wars did. Oh, it sure evokes that battle, with Anakin joining a bunch of Naboo pilots in a battle against a sphere-shaped threat, but that particular threat – the Droid control ship – is not anything like the Death Star in terms of its capabilities.

It was already a bit silly when Return of the Jedi said, “Hey, there’s another Death Star.” The Force Awakens saying, “Hey, there’s another Death Star, but now it can destroy entire star systems at once, not just a single planet,” just feels lazy, especially because it feels like it wasn’t even a concept anyone making the movie was excited about, given how little weight it has in the story even after we see it used to kill, presumably, countless billions of lifeforms.

There were a million other purposes Starkiller Base could have served, and different missions that Han, Chewbacca, and Finn could have been sent on while also rescuing Rey, because as much as I like Poe Dameron, the least interesting part of the third act is those X-Wings attacking Starkiller Base…

The Explosive Finale

…but it’s not a dealbreaker, because so much else works so well around it from start to finish. In that third act, Han’s death is legitimately wrenching. Then you get that final lightsaber battle, and man, when Rey pulls that lightsaber to her, and it whips past Kylo Ren’s face into her hands as John Williams’ music soars, it is still absolutely thrilling. And I should know, since I let out a cheer from my couch while watching it happen the other day!

All of that “Rey’s a Mary Sue” crap that burbled up in the aftermath of the film’s release is ridiculous (it’s a good rule of thumb in life to never use the opinion of Max Landis as your basis for any argument), because the movie has already done plenty to earn her a fair shot in this fight. She may not have held a lightsaber yet, but Rey’s been established as skilled with a melee weapon from the start thanks to her staff, and Kylo Ren can quickly sense she’s strong in the Force even if she’s untrained. Yes, she was completely overwhelmed the first time she faced Ren, when she was notably armed with only a blaster. But in this final battle, he’s just been shot in the gut by Chewbacca’s bowcaster, and though he’s still walking after a blast that has killed many a stormtrooper, he’s clearly in bad shape. (As an aside, what a wonderfully weird touch it is having Kylo Ren keep punching the wound in his stomach, as though amplifying the pain is somehow helping to keep him on his feet).

Of course, he still dominates most of that lightsaber fight, keeping her on the defense. Yes, she then manages to turn the tables on him and come out on top, but only after she has her own “use the Force, Luke” moment, calling upon the Force even without completely understanding it yet… because she’s inherently freaking strong in the Force, like the dude whose face she just split open understands! It’s a thrilling conclusion to a really well done and involving film, and by the time Rey reaches the man, the myth, the legend – Luke Skywalker – and offers him his old lightsaber, it’s a reminder how wonderfully involving Star Wars can be, and how stirring it is as a modern day mythical story.

I know, I know – you may absolutely hate what comes next for Rey and Luke in a different movie that opened a couple years later, or you may hate what happens in the movie after that. Or you may hate both of them! I get that there’s a lot of people who feel like if they don’t like where follow-up installments go, then an early entry is now worthless – a retroactive waste of time. But how can it be a waste of time when it’s still so entertaining in and of itself? Even if you feel like the new hope that The Force Awakens offered was eventually squandered, it’s still comforting to look back and once more connect with the good feelings that hope on its own elicits.

After all, I hear you can build some pretty cool stuff with hope.