I must say that, when I learned that the new trilogy would not follow the Grand Admiral Thrawn arc, a little part of my teenage self died. The only Star Wars books, I ever read, I enjoyed them at the time. But, upon, reflection, it’s probably for the best, as this guy was one of those villains who was too clever, so that…well, that would have been spoilers. Anyway, it’s probably for the best.

So the actual movie: Well, it doesn’t suck. And it would be an interesting (on some level, boring on most others) to watch them all again to see where I would put it now, given that I’ve had time between when I originally saw the “first” three.

But this is still very much Star Wars and still very much not my thing as an adult. (I loved the original movies as a kid and tween, much like most kids.) It’s a space opera, as we would expect, so everything is clearly defined. And there’s rather a lot of fan service to boot, including the appearance of a number of characters from previous films.

I think this is probably better than all the films in the “first” trilogy – more than likely – but it just isn’t my thing.

6/10

• Directed by J. J. Abrams
• Produced by Kathleen Kennedy J. J. Abrams Bryan Burk
• Written by Lawrence Kasdan, J. J. Abrams, Michael Arndt, Based on Characters by George Lucas
• Starring:
  • Harrison Ford as Han Solo
  • Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker
  • Carrie Fisher as General Leia Organa
  • Adam Driver as Kylo Ren
  • Daisy Ridley as Rey
  • John Boyega as Finn
  • Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron
  • Lupita Nyong’o as Maz Kanata
  • Andy Serkis as Supreme Leader Snoke
  • Domhnall Gleeson as General Hux
  • Anthony Daniels as C-3PO
  • Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca
  • Max von Sydow as Lor San Tekka
• Music by John Williams
• Cinematography by Dan Mindel
• Edited by Maryann Brandon, Mary Jo Markey
• Production companies: Lucasfilm Ltd., Bad Robot Productions, The Imaginarium
• Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
• Release date: December 14, 2015
• Running time: 135 minutes
• Country: United States
• Language: English
• Budget: $306 million
• Box office: $2.068 billion