Another atrocious science fiction/fantasy film.

Rating: 1/10 (7 June 2017)

Surprise, surprise, the ultimate fanboy JJ has plagiarized another popular film. Unfortunately the few changes introduced destroy the integrity of the film while nearly nullifying the achievements of the original trilogy's protagonists.
To be fair to JJ one of the main problems probably stems from a certain brunette producer who appears to have insisted that the main protagonist should be an embodiment of female perfection who also just happens to be a brunette. Luke in A New Hope is helped and upstaged by several male characters but for some reason the makers of this film appear to have concluded that people would object if that happened to a female protagonist. All the talents of the original protagonists plus C3PO's facility for translating languages appear to be combined in one character. In short she is too good at too many things, too early. And I have a slight suspicion that one character disappeared for half the film in order to ensure that she was not upstaged.
As everything has to be bigger and better in this remake the other protagonists abilities are also sometimes increased to ridiculous levels when facing the antagonists . If the original trilogy was the hero's journey the indications appear to be that our new heroes will take a gentle stroll around the park.
Even though this franchise is merely science fantasy the inclusion of the death planet plot element was a particularly egregious affront to science and should probably have been dropped anyway in order to focus on the search for Luke.
The whole stormtrooper plot thread seems to be a fundamentally bad idea poorly executed. Stormtroopers should ideally function as faceless cannon fodder for our heroes to overcome without unduly raising concerns in the watching audience as to their fate. If our heroes are killing stormtrooper antagonists by the thousands I do not want them to be simultaneously portrayed as brainwashed innocents. Once this one brainwashed stormtrooper has a mysteriously quick change of allegiance he and everyone else is back to merrily mowing all the rest down again. If it isn't a problem for that one ex stormtrooper it most certainly is for this particular member of the audience. Not that you would be able to tell that he was an ex stormtrooper from his subsequent behaviour, no PTSD in this world, he is too busy playing the part of comic relief.
As with other JJ films the fast pace of the film seems to be a deliberate attempt to cover for inconsistencies, plot incoherence, plot holes and a shameless reliance on unbelievable coincidences and deus ex machina. The film is also full of wise arses cracking jokes all the time in a way that severely reduces the tension throughout, a particularly noteworthy offending line of dialogue appearing right at the beginning when one of the protagonists confronts the main antagonist. JJ also fully deploys his mystery box and consequently there are numerous plot elements left unexplained by the end of the film. Whether JJ actually knows the answers to any of these unresolved mysteries is also a mystery.
One of the plot elements left unexplained concerns the exact relationship between the three main factions. This clunky setup appears to exist only in order to recreate the power dynamics of the original film where the tiny resistance takes on the might of the Empire. The First Order replaces the Empire while the resistance replaces the rebels. Somehow though the First Order is bigger and better/badder than the galaxy spanning Empire as they have managed to build a bigger and better Death Star/Planet. The third faction is conveniently sidelined in order that the filmmakers can concentrate on copying the plots from the original films.
Personally I don't want to see a seventy two year old reduced to reprising the exact same role he played nearly forty years ago, especially when the character development during three films appears to have been reversed for the fourth. As in Indiana Jones he even appears to be wearing the same clothes, maybe the wardrobe department ran out of money after clothing everyone else. Although his presence was the most impactful of the returnees it was still an exercise in empty nostalgia.
The shoehorning in of old characters, references and dialogue in order to induce nostalgia in the audience demonstrably effected the overall quality of the film as the script had obviously had to be contorted to breaking point to fit it all in. One of the prime examples being the ridiculous succession of coincidences needed to get the old and new characters together within the same scenes. If it was just new characters bumping into each other in a massive universe that wouldn't be such a problem but the new set bumping into the old set within the confines of this one film makes the universe appear to be smaller than one solar system. JJ then compounds the problem by having characters standing on planets while looking up and watching the destruction of other planets. Did JJ flunk science at school? Is this the revenge of the scientifically illiterate? Answers on a postcard please.
And finally, where are all the exciting new worlds and races? Star Trek used to be about boldly going into the unknown but the new films decided to chuck all that rubbish away and concentrate on mindless action, explosions and revenge. Star Wars used to be about new planets, new races, and new adventures. Why bother when you can just get away with rehashing the plots of the original trilogy?