Good, but nothing more than that.

Rating: 7/10 (18 December 2015)

This could well be the toughest review I have had to do. I don't know whether it is because of me now reviewing films, I have become more critical of them. But for me, I felt The Force Awakens was good, but nothing more than that.
The first half opens up really well with some interesting and believable characters. The story develop into something quite familiar, and yet it is still moving along nicely. The action sequences are really well directed and constructed and we are now building up to where these new generation of characters fit into the saga. As for the second half, it goes in directions that definitely had me excited and I was loving a lot of the new characters and enjoyed them every time they were on screen. However, the final act did not feel exhilarating for me. One part of it felt too satisfactory. But the other was quite enjoyable including one moment that gave me goosebumps. Sadly, that was the only time when I felt like that.
I have to start with Daisy Ridley as I loved her. She definitely gives us the strongest performance. I was totally invested in her character and I will root for her till the very end. As for John Boyega. He is good with Ridley with some solid comedy. But he also looks so excited to be part of the film and seems to forget to act at times. But he does have his moments that are great to watch. Adam Driver as our main villain was the most interesting. His appearance may seem like another Darth Vadar, but this troubled character gives us a new type of villain that I want to understand more. I was not sure about Oscar Isaac's character by the end of it. He started really well and I wanted to know more about him. But he seemed to lose his development in the few times we see him in the second half.
One risky new character was the new droid, BB-8. He isn't the Jar Jar Binks of the film. He is cute and funny and I will be happy seeing parents buy this from toy shops from now on, as it is worth the money to own such a lovable character.
Other minor roles that I liked and wanted to know about were Max Von Sydow's and Lupita Nyong'o's. I also want to give a quick shout to the trio from The Raid. It was great seeing them be part of this. One new character I found troublesome was Domhnall Gleeson's. He really camps up his performance and felt out of place with the tone. Another disappointment, but in a different sense was Gwendoline Christie's character. She has a character that I was looking forward to. But she is hardly on screen. It was a shame as it sounded like a character that could have been quite memorable.
Now to the characters we all know. By far the best was Harrison Ford as Han Solo. For most of the time, I felt I was actually watching Solo rather than Ford. He is a big part of the film and gives the new characters some nice guidance. His comedic moments works for the most part also. Carrie Fisher did not feel like the Leia we all know and the role she had in this film did not seem believable. C-3PO for the few scenes he was in was actually annoying and felt like just saying things just to remind people that he was there. As for Mark Hamill. Is he in it? Yes. I'm afraid that's as far as I can go with that one.
Despite me liking a lot of it, the main part of my rating goes on my general feeling of it. As much as I was willing myself to match it with some of this years best films, I just couldn't due to the problems I had with it. Thankfully, they are all minor problems.
I think the big problem of it is that the story felt too similar. We know J.J Abrams has history with the Star Trek films.
I could even be brave and call it a safe film. It felt more like a re-boot rather than a continuation.
The antagonists in the main battle station was massively under- developed in my opinion. Seeing it in full operation was impressive and made my jaw drop. But I didn't not feel fear for the characters involved. I think that is mainly due to the people running the battle station not feeling threatening enough for me to care. Apart from Kylo Ren and the Stormtroopers, the others felt cowardly and weak rather than threatening. It felt just like something for the protagonists to fight as there was nothing else to do battle with.
The visual and practical effects were brilliant, the cinematography was vintage J.J Abrams, the score by John Williams has that great mix of the old pieces with many new additions including a couple of pieces of music for Ridley's character that are just gorgeous to listen to and I feel the production and costume design deserves Oscar nominations.
Is it better then all the prequels? Most definitely. It is more interesting, better written and has many characters we can invest in. Does it match any of the original trilogy? Don't think so. The good stuff is not strong enough and it has too many problems, especially with the story being too familiar.
But rest assured, I would definitely watch it again, I was never bored and it definitely has that Star Wars magic that the prequels barely had. It was just missing something to make the story different from the rest. If I was pointing fingers, it would probably fall onto the writing department.