It's not enough

Rating: 3/10 (12 April 2016)

Aside from the most obvious, predictable and least suspenseful way of killing off an important character and the entire movie being pretty much a blatant copy-pasta of the original trilogy, the Force Awakens isn't all that bad. It's certainly an entertaining movie (especially for younger generations) all things considered, but is it enough for the old guard?
The big downfall of this movie are the characters. The characters in The Force Awakens are paper thin. And the reason why is because there are not enough meaningful dialogues. All the flashy pew'pew'ing is meaningless if there's not enough exposition. For example, what do we know about the lead character Rey? Well, the first half of the movie tells us that she lives alone on a sandy planet. She collects scrap. And... that's it for the most part. That's just not enough information! As a result it's impossible to form an attachment to this character. I mean there are a few other personality traits that we learn about her but overall it's just not enough. Compare that to when we first meet Han Solo in A New Hope. We instantly fall in love with this character not because he's a smuggler who owns a super fast ship (although that's cool in its own right), but because he instantly presents us with information - quirks, traits, characteristics, personality! He's arrogant, macho-type of guy with a shady past involving the Empire, isn't too slow to brag about his achievements, and a tendency to get entangled with local crime lords. That's an overload of information given to us through dialogues and interactions between the characters. See, that's where The Force Awakens falls flat. Not only is there not enough information about the lead characters, the dialogues that they engage in are short and woefully shallow... No amount of state-of-the-art graphics can make up for a lack of information. I guess we're supposed to grow and develop our attachment to the characters as the film progresses. But everything that happens to Rey is reactionary - stuff just happens and we're forced to watch her being forced to react by running away, fighting, and running away some more. In the end, none of her personality stands out as very unique or particularly interesting or has a chance to develop much.
Poe, played by Oscar Isaac, is by far the best and most charismatic character in this film. The moment he says "So who talks first? I talk first? You talk first?" when confronted by Kylo Ren, is when I instantly knew this character will not suck. Sadly, we don't get to see Poe very much after this scene which is a big shame.
I mean, I'd be lying if I told you I didn't enjoy watching the movie for its action sequences, beautiful cinematography and sets. Given today's standards, it's definitely an entertaining and fun movie. But this is STAR WARS. It's a goddamn religion for so many of the fans... As pretentious as it sounds - fun is not enough! The fans want more - more innovation, more interesting characters, more exploration of the mystery of the Force. Overall, it's just not enough.
Abrams and the rest of the writers should be ashamed.