Sheer Enough To See Through

Rating: 5/10 (10 May 2017)

On the surface, this is a well-made action movie set within the Star Wars universe filled with nods and homages to "A New Hope" that will make you tingle with warm nostalgia. The reappearance of sets, costumes and characters from our favorite childhood movies might make you say "Now, THIS is a Star Wars movie!"
However, nostalgia and making copious amounts of money on that nostalgia seemed to be Disney's primary strategy with this movie. It's mimicry, plain and simple. The CGI recreations of Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher felt very dirty and a flagrant disrespect to the departed actors, not to mention jarring, for a first time viewer. The digital appearance of Grand Moff Tarkin disengaged me from the frail story and made me settle my stomach with a handful of antacid tablets.
The story, writing, characterization is on-par with what you'd expect from modern cinema and the movie serves it's primary purpose of being entertaining. But, as a long-time Star Wars fan, I just couldn't help but feeling pandered to while watching this movie.