The one-time Stormtrooper with a conscience Finn can no longer participate in another massacre and joins the resistance gives the film a sense of heart. Meeting Rey as a scrapper stripping parts out of destroyed ships and selling them for food instantly makes her a character to connect with. When The Force Awakens is great - it's wonderful. And, more or less, that's exactly what we got with Episode VII: The Force Awakens. We wanted our favorite characters to return and despite 30 years be the same people we remembered as we last saw them during the great Ewok-hosted Stormtrooper BBQ on Endor. We wanted a universe that felt real - and not a computer-generated green screen background. We wanted characters we could connect with. After George Lucas' often directionless inorganic CGI-laden prequels, fans longed for what they loved about the original trilogy. It's easy to feel like The Force Awakens was a bit of a course correction for the franchise. But then we ended up getting a lot more Star Wars than we knew we wanted.

That marketing buildup was incredible and made the wait for the film's release feel interminable. Not only that, but we were also promised the return of Han Solo, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, and of course - Luke Skywalker! I still remember the excitement of that first teaser trailer and replaying it over and over again.

We had a new galactic supervillain with The First Order led by the crossguard lightsaber-wielding Kylo Ren. We had a trio of new characters with Poe Dameron, Finn, and a new Jedi apprentice Rey. After the bloated CGI of the Prequel Trilogy, The Force Awakens was the first film in decades that actually looked and felt like it belonged in the galaxy far far away. Abrams, producer Kathleen Kennedy, and the entire Disney mega marketing machine. Episode VII: The Force Awakens promised a new and exciting George-free adventure under the watchful eye of writer/director J.J. After Lucas unleashed his 'Special Editions' of the Original Trilogy, two mediocre films with one halfway decent entry to round out the often problematic Prequel Trilogy, the world was ready for a new Star Wars adventure something that felt like what fans originally experienced decades ago in theaters.

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