After a very long hibernation, the force has finally awakened.
All puns aside, the long-anticipated new Star Wars film, “Episode 7: The Force Awakens,” brought some serious business to movie theaters this winter, sending box office profits through the roof.
People across the nation flocked to theaters when the film arrived, including Ferris television and digital media production professor Glen Okonoski and his son Colin, who saw the film at an 8:30 p.m. showing on Thursday, Dec. 17 in Grand Rapids.
“Overall, the movie was outstanding and I really enjoyed it,” Okonoski said. “It had a nice mix of new characters as well as gratifying opportunities to see the original characters further their roles.”
Okonoski also said that upon seeing classic beloved characters including Han Solo, Princess Leia, C-3PO and R2-D2, there were cheers in the audience.
“I’d say it exceeded my expectations,” Okonoski said. “It was equally fun for me to see, as someone who saw the originals as a kid, as well as for my nine-year-old son to see, who hadn’t seen all of the previous films.”
Okonoski said “The Force Awakens” stands up well alongside Episodes 4-6 but he doesn’t care too much for Episodes 1-3, which were the most recent films to date prior to Episode 7.
“The writing is bad and the acting is worse, [for Episodes 1-3] which is surprising given some of the talent that was in those films,” said Okonoski. “For example, Samuel L. Jackson’s character is lousy.”
Ferris plastics engineering sophomore Kyle Brady also watched the film in Grand Rapids on Tuesday, Dec. 29.
“I thought the movie was great,” Brady said. “It was a little different than previous movies and the plot was hard to grasp at first, but I believe Disney did a fantastic job at blending their ideas into the new movie while still keeping it original. It’s almost like everything was different but nothing was different at all, if that makes sense.”
“I think it lived up to expectations just because it’s a Star Wars movie,” Brady said. “Even if it was a bad movie, Star Wars fans still would’ve gone crazy over it. I’m excited for the next movie to come out and you can guarantee I’ll be watching it in the theaters.”