The Force Awakens Revisited

[School of Movies 2025]

It has been ten years since Disney relaunched Star Wars in the cinema, delivering what felt like a special globally-unifying grand, historical event... that a bunch of Star wars fans complained felt too much like the 1977 original special globally-unifying grand, historical event.

J.J. Abrams has proved over the years that he is far better at restarting big, exciting new worlds off with a bang (as he did with Mission Impossible and Star Trek before this) rather than somehow closing them out with anything approaching that same level of satisfaction (as with Lost and The Rise of Skywalker).

But after all these years with all the Star Wars movies and TV and books and comics and video games that have played out since then, is The Force Awakens STILL my unlikely favourite of the whole series that has been with me since my life began in 1980?

Yes.

Put simply, this film transcends its own oversimplifications to become a joyful celebration of Star Wars, retreading many previous paths with a heartfelt energy the world badly needs again. And in this revisit show, Sharon and I talk about what has changed since we first recorded nearly four hours on it at the end of 2015 along with multiple guests at the opening of the gates to new adventure. That show can be found here, and since we also revisited the third film in the Sequel Trilogy back in 2024 after a serious re-edit allowed me to make peace, that leaves The Last Jedi for some point in the near future.