By Preman Koshar || Arts & Entertainment Editor

This review is now several weeks late, due to winter break and the delayed start of The College Reporter, but here it is, what you’ve all been waiting for: the Star Wars review. I will do my best to make this yet another spoiler-free review, but I’m making any promises—fair warning. Here we go.

If I could sum up Star Wars: The Force Awakens in a single word, a single adjective, it would be this: nostalgic. The movie positively oozed nostalgia. Every scene was reminiscent of at least one of the original trilogy films, and old favorites, like Han Solo, Leia, R2-D2, and Chewbacca are thrown into many shots, while there are wonderful reveals and nods to other classic aspects (I’m trying to be a bit vague here) that—I won’t lie—almost made me cry on more than one occasion. The reveals and the subtle nods are expertly done. The acting is very good, though nothing special, but, to be honest, it didn’t really matter. As long as Hayden Christensen didn’t make an appearance, I was happy.

The cinematography, however, is a significant step up for the series. Abrams gave Star Wars the panoramic vistas that it deserved long ago. The cinematography’s effect is especially magnified due to the significant advances in special effects since the last film. Together, they really help to make the galaxy seem real and alive. The score, of course, was fantastic, absolutely nothing to complain about there. The dialogue was also excellent—very faced-paced and well-timed. There were also a ton of lines that were surprisingly funny—especially for fans of the original trilogy. Somebody did a very good job there; there a few lines that I’m sure will go down in movie history as some of the funniest lines in all of Star Wars.

The one big flaw with the film, however, involved the plot. The plot is very similar to that of Episodes IV and VI. Scarily similar. Like, nearly the same movie, if you go by plot summary alone. I think this was done in a misguided attempt to dredge up even more nostalgia from the fans, and possibly make new fans more acquainted with the original trilogy, but it was just boring. Somebody did not do a very good job there. I knew, only maybe 25-50 percent of the way through the film how it was going to end. Sure, there were a few plot twists and new character lines, but, ultimately, it was the same story—the same story, mind you, that had already been told twice: once in Episode IV, and once in Episode VI.

In the end, though, it really was thoroughly enjoyable, and there was enough quality nostalgia to keep me interested. While the plot was boring, everything else was pretty darn fun. Luckily, now that Abrams has played the nostalgia card to the max, he cannot play it again in the next film. That means the writers will actually have to come up with an original plot. Once all the elements of this film are paired with a quality plot, then we might very well have a truly magnificent film on our hands. In the meantime, though, this will suffice.

Sophomore Preman Koshar is the Arts & Entertainment Editor. His email is pkoshar@fandm.edu.

By TCR