No Originality (Sans one plot point)

Rating: 5/10 (19 December 2015)

This will be a spoiler-free review regarding anything not in the trailers or posters!!!
The Force Awakens is just so-so and is only slightly better than Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Its main problem is that it felt "forced", no pun intended. I think the film lacked the time necessary to develop a great story, which in interviews with J.J. Abrams you'll read about. They first started a script with Lucas's ideas. They scrapped those and then they were in a time cramp of just a few months to develop a plot/script. George Lucas spent at least 7 years dreaming up the original trilogy and had another 15 dreaming up the prequels.
There is a lot of potential here, but given the time lapse of 30 years that takes place between The Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, there are too many aspects of the plot that don't make sense.
1) If you were like me, you were probably thrown when it was revealed in the trailer that there is an Empire still (called The First Order here). How this is possible is not explained. We are just supposed to accept that they exist and are a powerful threat. For me, this just doesn't make sense. The Empire was defeated and the galaxy cheered. How could the new Republic allow such a rebellion to happen and for that rebellion to build another death star? The rebels (heroes) of the original trilogy didn't build a death star, because usually rebels are outmatched. Here it is almost treated that The New Order is more powerful than the government. Plus, how could Luke Skywalker (the most powerful person in the universe) let this happen? 2) "Nothing will stand in our way... I will finish what you started." The new villain Kylo Ren says this in the trailer to Darth Vader's helmet. What did Vader start? Why does Kylo Ren even admire Darth Vader? These are questions that are not answered and make problematic the character of Kylo Ren's motivations.
There are more I could go over, but then I would be spoiling the movie. The villains are just a mess in general.
The heroes, on the other hand, are pretty great. Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Leia are amazing to see again. Rey and Finn are extremely strong characters. There is a lot of humor that works here and no cringe-worthy lines. The quips and reactions seem genuine and realistic, unlike say those in Marvel-Disney films. The big plot point is quite original and very unexpected. There were a lot of plot points I saw coming and was proved correct, but this one blew me away.
But like Marvel-Disney films, this movie doesn't take any risks. It knows what audiences want and gives it to them for the most part. There is a scene with some major Deus Ex-Machina at the end that just had me roll my eyes. Then there is of course the plot point of the new Death Star, which baffled me. To use this threat for a THIRD time was just ridiculous and if you thought the use of it a second time was lazy, here the mission to destroy it feels tacked on just to give the give characters some things to do outside the plot we actually care about. You would think that Disney would have listened to all of the fan's complaints about everything post The Empire Strikes Back, but here they didn't.
Lucas's prequel trilogy gave us something new, a lot of which didn't work. But at least it was new! Those films (outside of The Phantom Menace) felt more compelling than this one. I personally loved Revenge of the Sith and The Attack of the Phantom (the highly effective edit of Episode II). There wasn't a moment in The Force Awakens that matched the highs of those films (and even horrible The Phantom Menace, which couldn't be saved by an edit unfortunately).
Still, The Force Awakens is enjoyable. It just doesn't deserve to exist unless the sequels really blow us away. Hopefully, that happens! Score: 6.5/10