Star Wars: The Franchise Awakens

Rating: 6/10 (11 April 2016)

I have thumbed through quite a few of the reviews on here for this movie, most of them rated 1 star (or occasionally 2 or even 3), along with a lengthy diatribe around why the movie is so unconscionably awful. Whilst I'd agree that there is so much lacking in this movie, I can't in all good conscience mark it down there with the most awful films I've ever had the misfortune to encounter.
I'll not labour on the plot as this has been done to death in other reviews. I will say that it has some significant holes and raises more questions than it answers which, whilst some would be a great set-up for future episodes (such as the back story to Rey), others really ought to have been worked out in this movie (such as, how did the Empire transform into the First Order?) I guess all will be revealed soon enough, but if you're after deep and meaningful story, you're going to be disappointed.
What there is of a story, if you're already a fan of the franchise, feels like a retread of what has gone before. You may well have heard about how it's all a rip-off of the original film (which I refuse to call "A New Hope", even though I sort of just did) and if you have, then I'm sad to say that they aren't wrong. Orphaned child on a desert planet? Check. Cute droid with important information? Check. Raid on a dodgy cantina? Check. Lead character learns of the Force? Check. Nazi-esque evil rulers planning on destroying the enemy with a powerful, spherical object? Check. The rotund dealer of death and destruction is itself destroyed by a plucky pilot and a lucky shot into a hopelessly overseen flaw in the design? Oh, yes, that's in there too. But before we all get too caught up in the overwrought moans of everyone else going, "Oh, it's all been done before", let's just remember that, yes, it HAS all been done before. We had two precocious and whiny brats learning about the Force. We had cute characters that were central to the plot. We had two Death Stars and they were in the original Trilogy, the ones that cannot be besmirched even if they did have the Ewoks! This franchise has repeated itself before, so we can't really justify vilifying this episode on that basis.
Some people even say that the prequels are better than this film, because they have more of a story and more imagination. Really? Let's just take off the rose tinted Lucas specs for a moment and remember what we all hated about the prequels. How many times did we hear a central character talk about a battle that we would really have liked to have seen, but were treated to a meeting instead? Meetings are boring enough when you have to do them in real life, so being subjected to them in what is meant to be a sci-fi action series is rubbish. It was painfully obvious that they'd spent so much money on CGI nonsense that they ran out of funds for a decent battle scene. The plot line between Anakin and Padame was horribly forced. The only interesting bit was when we were treated to the plot line that took Anakin over to the Dark Side, where he ultimately became Darth Vader and even that was ruined by Hayden Christiansen's endless pouting. What I'm trying to say is, this film is better than all three of the prequels because it doesn't bore you to death. And I don't even need to bring JarJar into the equation!
As for the battles, they are really well executed in the main, with just enough action and explosions to entertain those who like things going boom, but not so much that the rest of us turn off at the excessive assault on your synapses. For this, I'd like to thank J J Abrams for not going down the Michael Bay route.
What this film is, is a reasonably competent romp in space, with some overtones of the Star Wars franchise, some competent acting, a bit of humour, some decent battle scenes and just enough care taken over the character development to make you care about what happens to them.
For the record, I'm a fan of the franchise and I found this to be one of the most enjoyable films in it. But then I'm not one of those nerdy fan-boys who has to have content as king. If I want that much detail, I'll read a book.