My Reaction to Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens

TL;DR: I welcome the movie.

WARNING: This post has the potential to contain spoilers.

For my reaction  to Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens, in reference to the books, I'd like to quote a Weird Al Yankovic song: "Everything you know is wrong!"

I loved the books of the Star Wars Expanded Universe (EU). I've also been looking forward to the sequel movies since before Episode I was announced. That said, the release of this most recent movie basically takes all those incredibly excellent books, and chucks them out the window of a 300 story building, straight down to a gigantic swimming pool filled with burning gas and tinder. But that's okay with me, because I still have the memories. Just because the timeline changed doesn't mean all stories should stop. On the contrary, it opens a door for yet even more stories. That allows for more memories, more experiences, more (different) adventures.

Yes, the movie ignores the books. But this confirms what I believe a ton of us already know: The only thing that stays the same is everything changes (to quote another song, this one by Tracy Lawrence). But it's new; it's different; it's exciting; it's fresh. We wanted new official content from Star Wars in the form of a new movie, and we got it.

And, hey, yeah, they killed a character that seems rather super important to the series, but that's just one character we all know and love from the original. How many rather super important characters died in the books? Chewie, Anakin Solo, and even Mara Jade Skywalker.... all characters that had a hugely significant impact in the EU.

I can't fault the script writers of Force Awakens for coming up with new content for us. While there were plenty of throwbacks and/or recycled scenes from the original trilogy, I saw it as more of an iconic tradition for the series. You can't have a Star Wars film without the nostalgic opening theme. Even the video games made from the series included the flights down the trenches to try to make impossible shots. I think the re-done scenes were meant to give us those feelings again, those feelings we got when we all first watched the first movies. At first I was thinking, "How unoriginal!" but then I realized, "The memories!"

So, yeah, it's a welcomed movie to me, one I openly embrace, because it's Star Wars! And it's fresh content!

And as always, I love sound in space; it's amazing.