Finally, what has been the highest anticipated film in decades has been released across the world. Even before its release, it's breaking records. In just a few days of sales, it has received $6.5M in pre-order tickets. It blew away big movies like the Dark Knight Rises, Hunger Games: Catching Fire, and the Avengers, which only had $1M in pre-sales.

   There has been an awakening. Can you feel it? Those are the things that bind The Force Awakens together. After thirty years of battling the galactic empire, the rebellion searches for help. With their only Jedi, Luke Skywalker, gone, they can only hope for his return.
Before we dive into the plot I would like to point out many nods towards the first film, Star Wars: A New Hope. For starters, the movie begins with renowned rebel pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) in search of Luke Skywalker. After running into a squadron of stormtroopers, Poe is captured. But before his capture, Poe gives a section of a hidden map to Luke Skywalker's whereabouts to a BB-8 droid. In order to avoid capture, BB-8 must get as far away from the empire as possible. Sound familiar. Further along in the movie we find out that the Empire (also known as the First Order) has constructed a planet destroying base called the Starkiller Base. Before turning its power towards the rebellion, the First Order demonstrates the base by demolishing a neighboring planet.

   As far as character development goes the movie suffered. In the original Star Wars George Lucas and his team did a great job with setting the tone for the movie. Since it was the first in the series, the characters needed to be well developed. And that's exactly what George Lucas did. Since thirty years have passed since the defeat of Lord Vader, J. J. Abrams and his team had to invent new characters. In order to make them shine they had to have the same development as the old characters from the earlier films.

   After Poe Dameron's capture on Jakku, the BB-8 droid try's to get as far away from the empire as possible. While eating lunch in her abandoned home female scavenger Rey (Daisy Ridley) rescues the BB-8 droid from a dessert dweller. At that same time, former stormtrooper Finn (John Boyega) arrives just in time to warn Rey about what danger the droid brings with him. Forced to flee Jakku due to an attack from the First Order, Rey, Finn, and BB-8 make their way across the galaxy in search of the rebel base. Along the way they encounter General Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and his sidekick Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew). In order to save the rebellion, the group must defeat the First Order's commander Kylo Ren, and destroy the empire's secret weapon.

    For the most part, Star Wars: the Force Awakens was a serious disappointment. I came into this with high anticipation, and when it ended I felt let down. I'm not saying its a bad film. I'm also not saying you shouldn't go see it. To me it definitely redeemed itself from the prequel films. But bare in mind that it probably won't be as good as the original trilogy. That way if you end up not liking it as much as the first trilogy you won't be disappointed. Hopefully the eighth film will bring with it more of the galaxy far far away with it. I guess you can never fully return to the galaxy far far away.

   After much anticipation in the Kyker household, most of which came from the three younger boys, Christmas morning has come. At 7:30am the anticipation broke out when Jack woke Mom up saying, "Momma, if you were a little boy would you like the presents you and Daddy picked out for me?" Sure enough, only a couple minutes later we were gathered together in the family room leisurely handing out the packages we had purchased/made during the month of December.