almost worth the wait!

Rating: 6/10 (22 December 2015)

I felt a lot of anticipation for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, as the trailers showed and promised plenty of action and drama.
In terms of action, it definitely delivers from the start, with a natural drop to tell some back story during the middle part of the film. The drama comes mainly from our new leading characters Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Finn (John Boyega), who deliver some good performances. It was good to see some of the old characters return, with Harrison Ford quite rightly getting the majority of screen time. Han Solo has good scenes with almost every other character in the film. Funnily enough the only scene that felt a little weird was with General (Princess) Leia, which might have been intentional.
Our baddie Kylo Ren, portrayed by Adam Driver struggles to deliver, but I would excuse this partly because he is wearing a knock-off Darth Vader mask, which makes it difficult. Once he takes the helmet off, he actually lost some of his mystique.
To the storyline, and this is where my disappointment is evident. If JJ Abrams was using the original films for inspiration and content, then he overdid it. There was so many déjà-vu moments I failed to lose count. For example, fighter pilots battling the First Order's death-star to stop a weapon which will destroy worlds, whilst Han Solo and his resistance infiltrate to lower the shields surrounding the aforementioned weapon. Return of the Jedi again!
The only saving grace for the plot is the search for Luke Skwalker, by both sides, but even that is reminiscent of Luke searching for Princess Leia back in a New Hope. I did like the final battle between Rey and Kylo Ren. Whilst raising the ire of some other reviewers on IMDb, because of Rey's novice status of using the force, it did produce some nice action. Even the finish to the fight with the ground opening up between them, was reminiscent of the fight between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Vader in Revenge of the Sith.
This could have been a much better film, if it had more original content! I would have preferred more background on our new Jedi hero. All we are treated to is a brief memory flashback when she picks up Luke's light-sabre. I am hopeful that the next Star Wars film will deliver on this story and some originality!