Typical JJ Abrams but not the Star Wars at all

Rating: 5/10 (17 January 2016)

I actually like the movie in general. The cast is good, the special effects are brilliant, the music is moving and the overall sense of high quality work is here. But.
First, all the visuals i've seen just aren't from the SW universe. Where's that McQuarrie-ish feel of enormous scale? where are strange gigantic constructions and weird machines? Where is the new sand crawler or the new AT-AT? Only the old rusty one... And for the planets - a medieval castle in the forest? And this is Star Wars? Are you serious? Just compare Yavin IV pyramids and the resistance 'cold war' base - can't you see the difference? And let's remember every original trilogy movie had it's own technical / visual feature like Hoth battle in TESB or forest battle / speeder chase in ROTJ. Not anymore.
The same thing is with the storytelling. Can you recall the very first line of each movie? A long time ago... far, far away.. c'mon guys, SW is a legend and a very old one like some ancient scroll. It should be big, heavy and cryptic. Not anymore.
The plot is obviously a compilation of ideas from the original trilogy (which is not a big issue for me) but it lacks depth and complexity of original films - you'll never know what's the political situation in the galaxy, where's the empire and why the rebels are still struggling for freedom despite the death of the sith lord and the destruction of Death Star (which supposed to keep the galaxy at the feet of it's rulers). The deep story, politics and moral choices? Not anymore.
More of it, the plot contains a lot of strange, almost childish oddities like flying on a light speed to the surface of the planet (which is deadly if you remember what Han Solo said to Luke in Episode IV) or the highly questionable process of charging the Starkiller Base weapon. A bit of scientific credibility? Not anymore.
Do you remember how hard it was for Luke to 'learn the ways of the force'? Training, training and training. Physical training, mind training and discovering the depths of his own mind. Hey, he even needed to travel to some uncomfortable swamp planet to meet some crazy 800-years old green jedi master. TFA's main character Rey starts to spread out mind tricks after about half an hour after realizing she's force sensitive and fights the evil dark jedi with a lightsaber she'd received just before this fight. Do you need training to use the force? Not anymore.
Wait, some characters don't even need to be force sensitive to use the lightsaber effectively - look at Finn, he's just a stormtrooper-plumber but can handle all these force users effectively.
Well...
JJ Abrams already told us one hundred times how he loves Star Wars and how he was influenced by the George Lucas talent and how he wants us to enjoy the movie and I tend to believe him (despite of what i saw on a screen) but looks like he just didn't get the very reasons why we love Star Wars. He've made a solid and dynamic blockbuster but it's not the Star Wars at all. It's depthless, action-overflowed and childish. So I give the movie 8 as a movie and 1 as the Star Wars. The result.. OK, let it be 5.