The Rise of Trying-too-hard Overblown CGI

Rating: 6/10 (8 January 2020)

While I can appreciate that someone did pick up the Star Wars torch to bring it to newer generations, this is a case of a potentially great epic falling into the wrong hands. The story had some interesting elements within it, but as always with these films that wish they were Star Wars, half of it could have been cut out and simplified to make a much better film. Too many little formula cop-outs to count, including trotting out the same old horse of "OMG so-and-so is dead!!! No they're not, YAAAYY" to the point that it had no emotional effect other than mild annoyance.
J.J. Abrams has never seemed to come into contact or express what made the original trilogy truly great: Simple, to-the-point storytelling. There's always a serious bloat of necessary extra characters and scenes that do not in any way contribute to telling the main story, but instead seek to keep the viewer caught up in a visual amusement park of CGI distractions to gloss over terrible writing and inconsistent story elements.
The heartwarming nostalgic moments of seeing the original characters couldn't save this film, unfortunately.