On Dec.18, the long awaited Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens finally hit theaters. During the opening weekend, the movie grossed over $ 238 million, beating Jurassic Park‘s opening Weekend profit of $208 million.

The movie had been hyped for months on end, and thankfully the hype was not for nothing. The movie, which ran for 136 minutes, was, to say the least, epic. The movie had a plot that was well-written, with many twists and turns that didn’t confuse people.

The story takes place 30 years after the fall of Galactic Empire, when a new evil force has begun to threaten the peace of a galaxy far far way. However, Luke has disappeared, leaving the galaxy nearly defenseless against the New Order. And the story sort of goes from there, with some awesome cameos from Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill.

The movie overall was quite enjoyable. There were sadly times that so much was going on, my eyes couldn’t take it all in. But other than that, the movie was beautiful. The design was unique; many of the scenes left me breathless from the beauty of it all. Also, something worth noting is that Abrams incorporated many of the old ways to film the movie, such as going to Egypt to shoot all of the scenes on the desert planet.

The movie, if one just ignores the story and the characters, can at least earn a nod for being a movie full of beautiful scenes and immersive designs.

Moving on, the story was paced well, and I really liked the characters. I liked how they acted towards one another, and I was glad that they were like real people.

For instance, after three or four minutes of meeting Rey, you, for the most part, get a good idea of her character: She’s waiting for her family on a desert planet. She has her fears about dying there, but feels trapped to really do anything. I personally loved the fact that Abrams didn’t just come out say this, rather he allowed actions to speak for themselves. And with that, you really get to know Rey and fall in love with her character. Thankfully, the same can be said about Finn, and many of the side characters that we see throughout the movie.

SPOILER ALERT

To be honest, there was very little about this movie I did not like, other than Han Solo’s rather sudden death. I was upset that he died, and honestly I felt like his death could have been drawn up a bit more. But, other than that the movie was excellent. It was worth the wait and is a movie in which I would recommend to anyone wanting to watch a brilliant space opera during this cold winter season.