They owe us episode 6.5

Rating: 6/10 (21 December 2015)

I had the misfortune of watching all 6 previous episodes before viewing this movie. Both trilogies before this had very clear targets. Episodes 4, 5, 6 had the death of the Emperor as main purpose. And it was beautifully scripted and played. Episodes 1, 2, 3 had the creation of Vader as main purpose. Even if I did not appreciate these movies the first time I saw them, viewing them again, with full knowledge of the story, was a surprise really. They had a quite good overarching story, and the evil genius of the emperor was really well portrayed. Creating a conflict in which he was on both sides, it was a good script, and in the midst of action, alongside Anakin, Qui Gon, Yoda, Windu, Obi Wan, you tend to do the same as the Jedi: focus on the task at hand, and wait for the well planned and well played hand of the emperor to develop. Episode 3, and the last scenes were again, quite good. And then comes episode 7. What was decisive for episode 7, was the version of the universe it was set up in. I expected to see a universe more similar to episode 1. Full of life, and freed from the evil empire. I think this was my biggest disappointment. The fact that they made all the fight of such great characters (Luke, Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca) to be for nothing really. It is disappointing to see a character appeared from nowhere (Snoke) could in 3 decades make all good characters to appear as if they never won. How about a version of the universe in which they had 30 years of peace, and these old characters need no back story because it was peace-time? It makes much more sense than all that non-sense presented as explanations in 2-3 phrases over the duration of the film. Really, what do they plan to do, a 6.5 episode??? There lays the key to the disappointment of most Star Wars fans. And while there is hope for the trilogy, they really need to stop it with blasting Death Stars, especially with 0 planning. It was like a brain-storming over coffee is sufficient to destroy a heavily militarized huge planet. Come. On. I really dislike that they made the movie for kids, and marketed it as a sequel for fans. Think of it. There was no mention of a Death Star in the trailers, nor of this joke character Snoke. If I saw that CGI created pseudo-Sith lord, I probably would have passed on the whole movie. The lack of character development was obvious. I would have preferred a slower story, with no Death Star destroyed in the first episode, but with good characters. Even if we don't know much about her, Rey is the only good thing in the whole story. Kylo Ren for me just did not deliver. Even if he killed Han Solo, he just did not seem credible, even after that. Maybe if he had the mask on all the time. The same can be said about most characters. Harrison Ford was good, but my guess is that he did not want to be involved in the next movies, so they had to take him out of the story. It felt a rushed move. The whole movie is in a hurry actually. Hurry up, quick, there needs to be time to blow up a super weapon after we briefly introduce the characters. To conclude, I think this franchise was conceived with episode 6 as the last episode. The death of Yoda is a symbol to that. I am still hopeful for the future, as probably they have scripted a good finale for the trilogy. But taking episode 7 by itself, it is probably the worst so far. And that should be of concern to Abrams. He may choose to just sell us toys, but it will come at the cost of his name in the business. If he wrecks this up, many people will avoid his movies in the future.