The Good and the Bad of ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’

Warning: Spoilers. If you’re like me, you’ve been waiting for this for a while. I got the pre-sale tickets, re-watched all of the movies (yes, even the dreaded prequels), and obsessed over press about The Force Awakens for weeks. If you’ve been keeping up with all the press about the movie, you know it’s a big hit, and it was definitely worth all the fuss. But despite my feelings of unadulterated joy as those rolling credits began, I must admit that The Force Awakens is far from perfect. So here’s my review of the good and bad of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, chock full of spoilers.

The Good The Cast: Well, duh. First off, neither of the two main leads are white men. Secondly, they’re awesome. Rey (Daisy Ridley) is strong, independent, and brave — plus, she’s a sand-surfing, First Order-fighting, Force-using character who can pilot the Millennium Falcon with no problem. Finn (John Boyega, a BNP favorite) is funny, an unlikely hero character who wants to escape the clutches of the First Order but ends up back in the middle of the action because of his loyalties. The anger and sorrow in Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren make him a formidable — and entertaining — antagonist. Driver, with his lanky shape and drawn face, certainly looks the part (so much so that I wonder how this guy played a part on Girls), and Ren’s many temper tantrums recalled the fury of Anakin Skywalker without the painful delivery of Hayden Christensen. He hasn’t been getting as much press as his cast mates, but Domh…