A very strange kind of disappointment.

Rating: 3/10 (18 December 2015)

I couldn't find more appropriate title for this review. As I walked out of the cinema, I just felt this strange kind of disappointment. It wasn't like I was watching a bad movie. This was different. Star Wars: The Force Awakens isn't a bad movie. It's just not a Star Wars movie.
Now the three prequel episodes I. II. and III. were bad Star Wars movies. But to some extend, still "Star Wars" movies. They were overdone by an overgrown kid with a bucket load of money, but still somehow felt like Star Wars. I saw the original Star Wars trilogy on VHS when I was 5 years old. That was in 1986. And all three episodes drew my attention with this magic feeling of a dreamy adventure, which George Lucas tried to lever up with his prequels and special editions, but somehow didn't meet not only his, but also SW fans expectations.
The episode VII. is not a bad movie, but for a SW fan it feels like a flat soda. There's no Star Wars feeling at all. Could it be I'm not a kid anymore? Maybe. But let's look closely, maybe it's not just me.
*** Watch out, some spoilers ahead! ***
Ripoff. Some reviewers come with a word "reboot", but this clearly isn't a reboot. A reboot is telling the original story in a new modern cloak to please the new generation. However The Force Awakens isn't telling the original story. It takes only the pattern of the original story to make a new one. That's called a ripoff. Or also lack of originality, plagiarism, copycat. The storyboard and the script for the prequels were bit of a mess, but nonetheless, still original. This one is really just a ripoff. The similarities with the episode IV. are so bright it hurts. The predictability of this movie is awful. Remember watching the original series, how you didn't know (to some extent) what happens next? Forget that. Here you not only know how it ends, you basically do know what happens next. All the time.
Time compression. There are a lot things going on here. It almost felt like two movies being shrunk into one. It felt like everything is done very very fast. Even though the story pattern was exactly the same as in the episode IV., the fast pace of the VII. episode was somehow disturbing. Even though it's fast, I started yawing somewhere in the second half of the sitting.
The new lead characters. Don't get me wrong, some of the new faces were even a pleasant surprise. I haven't had high hopes for Kylo Ren, but it actually turned out to be the best new Star Wars character. Funny how some complain about the similarities between episode IV. and episode VII., while disliking Kylo Ren for not being the same cold, ruthless and powerful villain like Darth Vader. The personality of Kylo Ren is the one aspect, which does not go along completely with the original story/character pattern. And I think this is good! I disliked Fin in the trailers, but he fits overall in the movie pretty well. Even though his role feels prefabricated. And that's the problem. He's like a fifth wheel on a car here. The idea of a rebellion storm trooper is interesting, but it doesn't go well with the logic of a cloned warrior, who is genetically prepared for the role of a mindless warrior. Similar with Rey, who should be apparently the new Luke Skywalker here. Not a bad character, but for some reason I couldn't believe the connection between her and the force. The rest of the new crew is somehow poorly developed. Poe Dameron is supposed to be one of the best pilots among the rebells, but he doesn't get much time in the movie and leaves a hollow picture of a character. Quite a thing if you imagine he's the one who blew up the new Death Star. And the others are ripoffs. BB-8 is a R2-D2 ripoff, Snoke is a emperor ripoff, Maz Kanata is Yoda ripoff. Not good. Oh yeah by the way Luke Skywalker? Do you know how many lines he has in this movie? Yep. Zero. He appears only for few seconds in the end of the film. Last but no least, the third Reich wannabe scene with general Hux triggered a face-palm effect on me. This was really bad.
I mean, all in all, if there were no Star Wars films in the past, then The Force Awakens would score a lot higher in my book. But it presents itself as a Star Wars movie, even a sequel, so it's hard to take this one out of the context.
It's one star from IMDb, one star for bringing up the old Star Wars characters and one star for being quite a nice and enjoyable movie. The missing stars are because this is trying to be something it isn't - a Star Wars movie, sorry.