We saw Star Wars Episode 7

My son and I went to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens the week after it opened. We had hoped the crowds would have died down by then but they hadn't. We purchased our tickets online but got to the theater just before the previews started and had trouble finding seats together. One person was reserving an entire row of seats by placing their coats over some of the empty seats and simply waving their hands over the other seats saying, "These are reserved, too." Does that seem fair? Some nice folks in the last row offered to move over so that we could sit together - without our even asking!

My son and I enjoyed the movie. The time passed too quickly. I liked the new characters a lot and thought the dialog was much better than in the previous six episodes. And the special effects, not surprisingly, were much better than previous episodes. It's been 10 years, after all, so if they hadn't been better, it would be a shock. But it wasn't just the effects themselves that were better. They were used better, too. The dogfights between the Rebel ships and the ships of the new Empire (called the First Order) were incredible. They looked so real and drew you in. We really liked the fact that they brought in the old characters from the earlier episode. I liked the fact that the new bad guy (Kylo Ren) is not seemingly invincible and is really very immature. I also liked the fact that the most powerful good "guy" in this episode is a woman. It adds a whole different feel to the movie. And she is still discovering the power she has so we get to be surprised along with her as she learns. There were a few sticking points to us but they didn't ruin he movie. I won't go into them here because they really are not that important.

One thing I do want to address, though, is the complaint I've heard by some reviewers about how similar the plot of this episode is to the original Episode 4 plot. Yes, there are many things you could add to a checklist of things that are superficially similar between the two movies kind of like you can make a list of similarities between the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. Like the assassination list, there is a much longer list of big differences. Also, I found it ironic that this past week the news was about how the new movie passed Titanic and Jurassic World in the list of most profitable movies of all time. The fact that these two movies had so much in common with previous versions doesn't seem to have registered with those reviewers.

It's a very entertaining movie with a deep story and it makes me very excited about the upcoming movies because there are a lot of questions that still need answers. We can't wait.