Playing it safe

Rating: 5/10 (25 January 2016)

The Force Awakens avoids some of the prequels' worst flaws, so hooray for that: it features no clunky dialogues and wooden performances. In fact, the best thing about Episode VII is what is NOT there. Although, to be fair to Lucas, Episodes I-III were messier than this new entry but also far more ambitious.
The movie is competent but safe and failed to resonate in any way for me. The plot is a rehash of A New Hope, beyond the "following common fantasy / sci-fi tropes" justification and more into the "stealth remake with new protagonists" territory. To me this is like watching Gus Van Sant's Psycho: in itself it's an ok movie, but I'm already familiar with the superior original, so it's just pointless.
Still, the first half or so is fine. There is some good visual storytelling as we follow Rey (Daisy Ridley) striving to survive and scavenging the wreckage of a Star Destroyer on Jakku (another desert planet... since you're already remaking A New Hope, Abrams, can't you at least change the setting?). Rey works well in these scenes; pity she becomes overpowered in the rest of the movie. Suffice to say, you leave the movie with the impression that the villain is the underdog.
Speaking of the villain, funny how sequels of classic blockbusters are becoming self-conscious. Jurassic World mocked the need to introduce new dinosaurs to entertain the audience; Episode VII features a bad guy, Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), who is obsessed with a character from the original trilogy (Darth Vader) and tormented by his inability to top him.
I UNDERSTAND what they were trying to do with Kylo (the unpredictable villain who, like the young heroes, is way over his head). I respect the attempt to do something novel. But he is too lightweight as the main antagonist, he lacks charisma, gravitas, dignity (he would have been just fine as a secondary villain). The barely-seen, Emperor-like "Supreme Leader" is a banal CGI creation; also, his name is Snoke, which sounds like something you buy at IKEA.
The other new leads are Poe (Oscar Isaac), Finn (John Boyega) and droid BB-8. Poe the dashing pilot is two-dimensional but fine. Finn is interesting on paper (a Stormtrooper deserter and the only hero with an actual arc) but writing-wise he is a mixed bag - a guy brainwashed since childhood by a fascist military regime turns out to be a lovable goofball; Boyega's likable performance saves this contradictory character. BB-8 is adorable.
There is also the return of Han and Leia, something I was dreading and could happily have done without (likewise for Luke in the upcoming sequel)... how sad seeing them so old, having failed at everything (the Empire has returned, their son has become a monster) and, in Han's case, with their characterization rebooted to square one. The comebacks of Chewie, C-3PO and R2 are inoffensive though.
While politics are not as prominent as in the prequels, there is at least one baffling choice: we have the Republic, which is good, and the Resistance, also good but a separate entity... why? It's like they went the extra mile to do something uselessly complicated. Just merge them and turn the Resistance into the REPUBLICAN ARMY (which is otherwise conspicuously absent).
Music has always been a crucial part of Star Wars; unfortunately, John Williams - whose soundtracks were among the best things of the original trilogy AND the prequels - is below his par here. The old iconic themes are there but the new material is mostly forgettable. Rey's theme is the only one which stands out but it's still far from Williams' best work... and doesn't appear to fit the character, at all. It sounds like a leitmotif for Harry Potter's kooky, fey Luna Lovegood, not for this hard-nosed survivor.
I can't muster up much enthusiasm about The Force Awakens, but it may be setting up some interesting progression for the next episodes.
5,5/10