A shameless remake of Star Wars (1977)

Rating: 1/10 (28 December 2019)

I came into this movie with a lot of excitement and hype December of 2015. Once the movie concluded, it all came to a crash. All the scenes in this movie play on your nostalgia. It never tried to be it's own thing. Nothing new or refreshing was added. They simply copy the Star Wars (1977) blueprint.
We are introduced to the first order, which are essentially the first galactic empire from Star Wars (1977). It is lead by Kylo Ren who answers to Supreme Leader Snoke. A Lord Vader and Emporer Palpatine relationship. We are introduced to the resistance. They are essentially the rebellion from Star Wars (1977), except their name is copied from Terminator. The protagonist, Rey, comes from the planet Jakku. A desert planet like Luke's homeworld of Tattooine. The first order have built starkiller base. It's basically a bigger death star. If you haven't guessed already, it blows up in the end. Once again, important information a galactic empire is after is stored in a droid. JJ Abrams blatantly plagiarized the original Star Wars plot and passed it off as his own work.
Kylo Ren is a much less imposing villain compared to Darth Vader. He often whines and throws temper tantrums. The writers seem to think that's intimidating, but it's really a sign of weakness. Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin never had to yell to have an intimidating presence. They sometimes raised their voice, but never show such emotional outbursts in front of their commanding officers. Such outbursts would show them they have no control, authority or confidence to solve a problem at hand. That's not how an organized and powerful galactic empire conducts leadership.
Rey is an extremely boring protagonist. She is simply perfect at everything. She knows how to use the force without training. She can do jedi mind tricks without training. She can fly the millennium falcon better than Han Solo himself. At the end of the film, she beats the main villain of the film with no training. Note that Kylo Ren was trained by Luke Skywalker. She is truly the epitome of a Mary Sue and that's why this movie has no stakes whatsoever.
Luke Skywalker was a character that had a lot to learn and room to grow. He needed to earn his way to become a jedi. In Star Wars (1977), Luke was being mentored by Obi Wan Kenobi. In The Force Awakens, Rey didn't even know the force existed and yet has all these abilities without anyone to teach her. Luke's development was much more interesting because Rey's was virtually nonexistent.
Rey beating Kylo is like having Luke beat Vader in the very first movie. Would Darth Vader be the iconic villain that we know today if he was bested by a farm boy from Tattooine without training? A reoccuring villain is much less of a threat if the protagonist easily defeats them the first time they meet. That is how you lower the stakes. When Luke Skywalker first faced Darth Vader, he was toyed with and got his hand cut off. You had a feeling of hopelessness when Luke was dueling with Vader. That's how you portray a serious threat to the heroes.
If you want to have a good star wars experience, just rewatch Star Wars (1977). It's pretty much the same movie, but better.