Am I taking crazy pills? Everyone needs to wake up, and smell what Abrams is cooking... it stinks.

Rating: 4/10 (21 December 2015)

As a warning, this "review" will contain spoilers. However, I hope that whoever may read this piece will continue on so as to see this movie through a different lens, rather than the emotional one I witnessed so many viewing this movie through during my first viewing of this film. I am aware that this is an overall negative review, and that it may turn some people off who have this unwavering passion for anything that says STAR WARS on it. However, I believe it is important to point out just how unsatisfying this film is, and that it is absolutely unacceptable to not scrutinize this film appropriately. First and foremost, have we not all seen this movie already? In preparation for this film I watched, and re-watched the "original trilogy" several times due to the excitement that was building for The Force Awakens. With The Force Awakens, we see a major repeat in the major story lines, and even specific scenes. Essentially, an evil force (The First Order) is threatening peace and freedom in the galaxy which is to be combated by an opposing righteous group (The Resistance). The First Order is The Empire all over again, just as The Resistance is The Rebellion all over again nothing new here. We even have yet another Death Star, although, this one can destroy 4-5 planets at one time rather than just one. The Death Stars just seem to be getting bigger and bigger. Again, nothing new here. How can we say that we are satisfied with the same story that was told in IV and VI? Similarities to the original trilogy were rampant throughout this movie even down to how a major character dies, and is disposed of down a never ending steel shaft. Even destroying the Death Star was done in the same manner, by crippling a major power source. The similarities go on and on, and frankly are just disgusting to see rehashed. Seriously people, why can't we all see this??? The characters within this movie were just as awful as the story line. My biggest issue lies with Kylo Ren. This character is by far the most unimpressive person to wield the dark side of the force I have seen in all of the Star Wars films. What we have seen in past films through other characters who are of the dark side, is an unwavering allegiance to the powers that the dark side hold. We see characters that strike fear into our hearts, are domineering, and make us wonder how their evil can ever be conquered. With Kylo Ren, we get an unassured, weak boy who is seen on several occasions crying to the Supreme Leader about how he's just not sure about this whole dark side thing (terrible). And by the way, Han Solo dies at the hands of this fool HAN SOLO. It would be more fitting for the BEST character in the Star Wars universe to go down in a blaze of glory in the heat of battle, rather he dies at the hands of his weak and unimpressive son. Rae and Fin are terrible as well. First, Rae, a scrapper who is found on yet another desert planet peaks at the end of this film with a light saber battle between her and Ren. Mind you, Rae was a scrapper an hour and a half prior to this light saber battle. She is a person who just discovered that she has the powers of the force, and at the end of the film goes toe-to-toe with Kylo Ren, a character who has had at least five more days of training than she at wielding the force. I'm not sure if this speaks to how weak and unimpressive Kylo Ren is, or how Abrams and the rest just needed to put a light saber battle in the end and essentially just said: "Rae discovered the force so she's got this, no training required." Even Luke Skywalker had some sort of visible training, but apparently Rae could do just fine without. Fin was just as terrible, more so in the acting than anything else. He also fought Kylo Ren in a light saber battle, and did pretty well again this is a testament to how awful the characters/ story is developed. As I am running out of words, I need to rap this rant/ review/ opinion up. Many others who were not impressed with this movie touched on a lot of the same issues I have, as well as many more. I suggest going to read those reviews as well. The last topic I want to touch on was the one piece of hope that I was given during this movie. This film could have been an absolute monster if it had taken the stance that The Empire Strikes Back did. The one time I remembered sitting up in my chair was during the speech that the First Order general was giving to the storm troopers prior to activating the "main weapon." This scene had such an eerie feeling to it, one which felt similar to Hitler's Third Reich. If the main story followed how the First Order rose from the ashes of the Empire, and became this sinister threat within the galaxy rather than just telling me via text at the beginning of the movie, I would be biting my fingernails right now waiting to see them be destroyed by the Resistance in the following movies. This movie should have broken our spirits by showing us that a new, even more sinister power in the universe controls it so that we could all cheer at the end subsequent films when the impossible becomes possible, and good prevails. Instead we just got IV and VI all over again OH! AND WHY IS CHEWY LETTING RAE DRIVE THE FALCON AFTER HAN DIES? FIRST HE LOST HIS BEST FRIEND, THEN ABRAMS WON'T EVEN LET HIM DRIVE THE FALCON HOME? POOR CHEWY.