The Force was with me yesterday as I was able to get tickets to the new Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens. It was an out of this world experience and I am going to tell you all about it. So in case you haven’t already figured it out, there are going to be SPOILERS, but not all the SPOILERS. Go see the movie for the rest of them. Read at your own risk if you haven’t yet watched the movie though.

First some background on how excited my family and I was for this movie. It’s a true statement to say that if you turn on any Star Wars movie (even one of the prequels) we will all wander in and start watching it. No matter what else we had been doing, we have to go watch Star Wars. It’s like the nerdiest of bear traps. My dad watched the very first Star Wars movie the first weekend it came out. Now we watched the movie trailers for this one over and over and discussed at length if this movie would be more like the original three films, or more like the most recent ones. The previews seemed to lean toward the former and our anticipation grew. We did go in with some reservations however; would that little ball droid be too much because Disney can’t resist a cutesy sidekick in every movie they do? Or worse would it or another character be the new Jar Jar Binks? Would this have all the old characters doing their thing while new ones were pushed to the background? How much CGI were they planning on using?

We finally got to go on Monday to see it. The theater was still packed even after that huge opening weekend. A couple had brought their toddler and we all sighed at the fact the kid was inevitably going to start loudly crying during the movie (he did several times, but at least his mom and dad were good about leaving the theater with him then so movie crisis averted). Mostly I could see how there was excitement in the air from all these other nerds. I was definitely with my people. I fired off a few tweets about getting to see the movie before shutting off my phone, because I am a twitter junkie but not a rude movie goer.

We went through some previews; everyone laughed at the new Zootopia movie and drooled over Tarzan. Then the screen went dark and we all knew it was going to start. Some people were still chattering, but then the Star Wars music kicked in and it was loud. Pretty sure they did that on purpose to shut everyone up. It was great. The movie immediately hit the nostalgia feelings with not only the familiar music, but also the opening crawl telling you what had happened since the end of the sixth movie. If you were wondering how JJ Abrams, our new director was able to hit such high notes with the music, it’s because he asked John Williams to return. He is the man who has composed all of the original Star Wars music. It was the first example of many that showed a happy marriage between old and new in the Star Wars universe.

This movie is 135 minutes long and it is action packed from start to finish. From about the midpoint on I kept telling myself there can’t be that much more they can fit into one movie, but it just kept going. It reminded me and everyone in the theater what an adventure Star Wars could truly be. We also found out that the new characters were most definitely not pushed to the background, but instead were the stars of the movie. Finn who you find out from a chilling one liner was stolen from his family and programmed to be a Stormtrooper realizes in his first battle how messed up the First Order (the baddies) truly are. The blood smeared across Finn’s helmet as he struggles to watch the massacre of the town hits you hard. You also meet Po, the Resistances’ ace pilot. He valiantly gets a map to help them find the missing Luke Skywalker and tries to take on Kylo Ren, the evil jedi and he is captured.

Now I’m used to seeing the force used in these movies. I know what to expect, but whenever Kylo Ren used the force, I could feel the power behind it. I would sit up in my seat a little straighter to watch. It was amazing. Can I join the dark side? Anyways the movie was able to not only introduce a brilliant bad guy, but was able to grow from those scenes and make Ren’s character even more complicated. In my thought of thoughts I pouted deeply that Darth Maul was never given this chance. We find out some things about Kylo Ren (but not all, leaving it up to the next movie which was refreshing since most series movies try to wrap everything up each movie with a nice little bow and it’s getting on my nerves), some of which I will not spoil on here but say one of the fan theories hit the nail on the head. So good on you fans.

There were a few things that surprised me in the movie; mostly the fact that I knew this was Star Wars and Disney. I wasn’t used to seeing blood and there were several scenes of it. None that were Tarantino levels of excess, but it made its point. Also there were two torture scenes. Now it was mind torture from Kylo Ren, but you could still tell it was hurting them and that it caused damage, especially to Po. I’m just not used to seeing such things from these movies, but they were used for maximum effect and is it bad to say I enjoyed watching it? Star Wars grew up.

There was also Rey, a smart scrapper from the planet Jakku that Finn ends up on. I loved the scenes between her and Finn. He immediately tries to save her only to realize it’s him that needs the saving more often than not. They have good chemistry together but everything was kept very light. They have only just met and not much time passes during the movie. The most serious scenes is when Finn tells her the truth of his past, him leaving and Finn insistently going to rescue her. They are also pretty funny together. The whole movie was funny to be honest. I think every character, except the bad guys, had funny scenes. We also learn almost nothing of Rey’s past. There are only hints to it and I hope it gets explained a bit more in the next movie or two. In one way I want her to be related to a certain jedi (since it was his lightsaber that called to her and all) and in another way I want her to not have any past ties and to just be herself.

The cinematography of this movie is gorgeous by the way; the different planets, the bar scenes, the traders’ outpost, even the ships and planet the bad guys were on were set up perfectly. No detail was left out. I loved that the bad guys not only had classic Stormtrooper outfits (with some new thrown in there too) but also the old military uniforms of the officers. Leia’s hair was different, but still evoked memory of that classic hairdo from before. Po’s ship and the pilot outfits were much like the originals looked, but a bit sleeker. Kylo Ren’s helmet compared to Darth Vaders. Again it was a happy marriage of old and new.

I was also happy with the new story. It almost always stuck to the basics of a Star Wars narrative, but it was able to do it in a fresh way. There were the bad guys, The First Order now, but they have a bigger and badder plan than the original movie and a much larger body count. The Resistance, instead of rebels, worked much the same; small group of underdogs doing crazy plans that should definitely not work but it’s their only choice. Han Solo was still a smuggler getting into trouble and it was great fun watching him get out of it. The old characters were seamlessly added into the plot. Leia is still the leader of the Resistance, Han and Chewbacca are dragged in by getting their ship back and everyone is trying to find Luke Skywalker.

Even C3PO makes an appearance and he’s still a little twit. R2D2 as well has an important scene, but our droid quota is mostly filled by BB-8. Remember I told you I was afraid he’d be too cutesy or a terrible, useless sidekick. I was wrong. So wrong. I tried really hard not to like him, but the little guy just rolls right into your heart. While he does take up a good amount of screen time, he is generally an important background character. He carries the map to Luke Skywalker and Rey and Finn have to get him back to the Resistance. You giggle at him being thrown around the Millennium Falcon, or making funny noises while being chased. I even had to smile when he was following Rey down some stairs and you could see him turn sideways and carefully thump, thump, thump his way down after her. Even when he found Po again and rolled at him because he was so excited to see him was good. He was less droid and more loyal dog and you couldn’t help but cheer for the little guy.

There were also no other characters that could fit the bill as the new Jar Jar, thankfully. There were an array of old and new aliens to look at, as well as a expounding on humans in the galaxy. The Empire has morphed into something else entirely while their goals are still similar. The general that was always butting heads with Kylo Ren ended up being less cannon fodder and more crazy loyalist that is still kicking to cause trouble in the next movie. There was a woman pilot for the Resistance and one of the baddies was a woman as well (Maz Kanata or as I called her Blinged Out Cool Looking Stormtrooper Leader Lady). There is too an evil overlord that is much like the old Palpatine. He was the one who made sure Kylo Ren came to the dark side and he is teaching him more still. We didn’t find out anything of his past, but that’s what the next film is for.

The only criticism I really have of the new movie is I felt some characters were underused; Maz Kanata and Po being the top two on that list. They had their moments, but I just felt they could have had more dialogue and a bit of backstory. This may be because they will be getting it in the next movie and this one was only to introduce them, but I felt a bit bereft over the fact we got almost nothing from them when everyone else was able to squeeze so much characterization out. Po I felt had been set up for a bigger part, but was then pushed out of the picture until much later.

Overall I was very pleased with this movie. The old and new were well tangled together. The story is solid and has the ability to grow. I actually care about the new characters and what will be happening to them. It set up so many things to happen in the next couple of movies and I can’t wait to see how it all ends up.

Also for anyone who was complaining about the leads being a woman and a black man, well not only was that dumb but they so proved you wrong. Those two actors are amazing and have made the Star Wars universe a much better place. I love them.

I will not be telling you about the BIG SPOILER. You have to go see it for yourself. Don’t spoil it for anyone else by mentioning it in the comments or on twitter, please. If you would like to talk about it or other spoilers I’m happy to do so, just on DM’s on twitter. You can find me at @quietlikeastorm and we would really appreciate a follow or checking out our other articles at @thenerdygirlexp.

May the force be with you.