A New Hope: Fan Fiction Edition

Rating: 6/10 (23 December 2015)

SPOILERS The two stars are for Rey's strong female portrayal and the fact Harrison Ford really acted for the first time in decades. Otherwise, here are my problems with this derivative and disappointing Star Wars movie, in no particular order.
-Brienne's badass stormtrooper captain was wasted.
-Disney shouldn't have even indicated Mark Hamill was cast in the film and just let his participation be a surprise. Based on Hamill's second billing on the poster and credits, his presence in the trailer, and his appearance at Comic Con, I suspected he would be in at least half the film and felt cheated by the end cliffhanger gimmick. The Resistance and First Order could have all been looking for the map with no idea what would be there when they arrived.
-The Empire's unexplained newfound strength is perplexing and undermines the end of Return of the Jedi completely.
-Han should not have died till Episode 8 once we knew and cared more about his relationship with Kylo. It ticks me off we'll never get another scene with Han, Luke, and Leia all together; talk about a missed opportunity.
-Why was Luke's saber from Cloud City sitting in a box in the middle of nowhere?
-Big one: How could Rey and Finn possibly stand a chance against Kylo, who has been trained by Luke himself and is the leader of the Knights of Ren? Rey should not have been able to wield a lightsaber with such proficiency.
-Why does Kylo even wear a mask? He didn't even wear it in the final fight and ended up with a scarred face.
-In general, Kylo was just very unintimidating. He failed at everything. Couldn't he have just Force-frozen Rey and Finn in the middle of the fight and taken them out?
-Probably the weirdest, most embarrassing thing of all in this film was the "Supreme Commander Snoke" hologram thing. Unfortunately, we'll just be getting more of him in the next two as he's clearly the new Emperor.
-The very idea of Starkiller Base makes no sense. If you suck up a sun, the whole solar system will be thrown out of whack. Since this weapon was built into a planet, they can't just move it wherever they'd like either.
-This film worked alright as the first part of an ongoing TV series. But technically this didn't seem up to par with the other films. The cinematography was remarkably unimpressive. Say what you will about Lucas, but he had an eye for shot composition. I'm sure this movie was expensive to make, but it still felt small-scale and fake-looking to me, once you get past the deserts and the sets in the foreground. John Knoll clearly wasn't leading the ILM team this time. They must have been stuck with the Indy 4 division.
-Of all the stories you could conceive, why repeat the exact same plot as A New Hope?
-One last thing: the John Williams score... utterly forgettable and generic.