Star Wars: The Force Awakens The Franchise With A Similar Plot As The Original

Director J.J Abrams has done it again with his unique way of rebooting once popular franchises. First, he rebooted the Star Trek movie franchise with two movies and now the Star Wars franchise with Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

What Abrams has done with the Star Wars reboot is provide a mixture of the old and new. It was a genius move to bring back characters and actors that Star Wars fans love such as Han Solo, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, C-3PO and R2-D2 and of course Luke Skywalker.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens was in good writing hands with Abrams, Michael Arndt and Lawrence Kasdan who wrote The Empire Strikes Back.

The storyline takes place thirty years after the destruction of the second Death Star. Luke Skywalker, the last Jedi has disappeared. Two groups are looking for him, the First Order, a group trying to take over from the fallen Empire and the Resistance, a military group supported by the Republic and led by Princess now General Leia, Luke's sister.  Both groups are seeking information about Skywalker's whereabouts.

On the planet Jakku, Resistance pilot Poe Dameron played by Oscar Isaac meets with a village elder Lor San Tekka played by Max von Sydow to receive the map of Skywalker's location. Just as Tekka hands the map capsule to Poe.  Stormtroopers led by Kylo Ren from the First Order played by Adam Driver attacked the village, killing villagers and Tekka and capturing Poe. Before his capture, Pope conceals the map capsule in his droid BB-8, who takes off into the night.

One of the Stormtrooper, FN-2187 is shaken by the cruelty of the attack on the village by the First Order. Later, BB-8 is captured by random scavenger and then rescued by a female scavenger named Rey played by Daisy Ridley. Rey is tough and a take care of herself person as she was left on Jakku by her parents.

Meanwhile, Ren inflicts pain on Poe to learn about BB-8. Ren leaves to dispatch the troops to Jakku to get BB-8. Stormtrooper FN–2187 play by John Boyega helps Poe escape. Then they steal a TIE fighter.

FN–2187 explains the cruelty of the First Order is the reason he left and helped Poe. Poe asked him his name and FN-2187 replies that his name is one that he was given by The First Order. Poe names him Finn.

 Finn explains how he was taken from his family at a young age to become a stormtrooper. That was a mystery answered for me on how one becomes a stormtrooper.

During a space fight with other TIE fighter.  Poe and Finn’s Tie fighter is damaged from a hit and crash lands on Jakku.  Finn is the sole survivor.

In the junkyard settlement, Finn encounters Rey with BB-8.  Within minutes of meeting each other, the First Order has found them. They run and come across a rundown ship which happens to the Millennium Falcon. They steal it. This was a defiantly a good plot twist.

I will give the movie some cinematic leeway that a scavenger girl who is been on a planet for a long time can fly the Millennium Falcon and fly it well enough to escape small TIE fighters. Wink wink. The scene was very good.

Now in space, the Falcon breaks down and soon it is taken in by a large freighter. Another cool moment comes when Han Solo played by Harrison Ford and Chewbacca played by Peter Mayhew come aboard the Falcon. As they are getting reacquainted with the Falcon that they discover Rey, Finn and BB-8 hidden in the ship. Rey and Finn are awe by the presence of Han and amazed to be aboard the Falcon.

Han explains that all the stories they have heard about the rebellion are true as Luke tried to rebuild the Jedi order, but disappeared after his apprentice Kylo Ren turned to the dark side destroying the Jedi rebuilding.

There is much more with the movie, you will enjoy the surprises and plot twists.

Star Wars:The Force Awakens told a great story while doing an excellent job in introducing new characters. Personally, I felt that parts of the movie didn't feel original as the plot line turned into a race against time before the bad guys blow up a planet with people on it with their super weapon. Does that sound familiar? Yep, it does. The very first Star Wars had the same plot-line.

Star Wars: the Force Awakens brought the Star Wars story full circle while introducing a new generation to the Force and the Star Wars galaxy.

Two more Star Wars movies are scheduled for 2017 and 2019.

While I was sitting in the theater with an audience, I felt the Force was awaken again in all of us, young and old.

Minions Will Made You Giggle Like They Do

I remember seeing Despicable Me and thinking to myself about the small yellow creatures in the movie, the Minions. I wondered what were they and where did they come from?  Now, the Minions have their own movie, Minions to answer my questions.

In the movie, we learned the Minions have existed since the beginning of time evolving from a single cell organism into beings who exists to serve the world and history's most villainous masters. Minions speak their own language which is a combination that sounds like different parts of Italian, Korean and other foreign languages.

We see the Minions as they work for villain masters from a T Rex, a caveman, an Egyptian Pharaoh, Dracula and even Napoleon with some real funny results.

Later, the Minions decide to distance themselves from the villainous masters and start a new life in Antarctica. Well,  the lack of villain masters drives the Minions into depression. I felt seeing the Minions depressed was a hard thing to watch. Usually, they are full of life.

Minion Kevin plans to find a new master by leaving the Antarctic. Yet, no one wants to leave except Stewart, a guitar obsessed Minion. He joins Kevin along with overenthusiastic Bob, who Kevin only chose because no one else was wanted to to go on the trip.

There are funny scenes as the trio travels across Antarctic and the sea. Finally, they arrive in New York City where they learn about Villain-Con, a upcoming convention  where villain meet up to be held in Orlando Florida.

The trio hitchhike with a crazy crime obsessed family to Villain-Con. The trip with the family is really funny.  At Villain-Con, Kevin, Stuart and Bob meets Scarlett Overkill, the world's first female super villain voiced by Sandra Bullock. Their adventure with her was funny as she tries to figure out what to do with them.

Minions is a fun movie as we see the Minions giggle their way in and out of trouble. If you are a fan of the Despicable Me movies like I am. Minions Stewart, Kevin and Bob are so lovable with their separate personalities that it turns the movie into cinematic gold.

If you didn't see Minions in the theater. You now have no excuse because the movie is on DVD/Blu-ray. I guarantee you will develop a Minions giggle as you laugh with them during the movie.

Minions is a great way to enjoy the holiday as the kid we all want to be during the season.