Has character and a sense of fun, but needs its own voice

Rating: 5/10 (20 December 2015)

The amount of one star reviews on here are baffling, though not surprising. Of course, this film was never going to live up to everyone's impossible standards and ridiculous expectations, especially considering that not everyone was pleased with Disney buying out Star Wars or J.J. Abrams's involvement to begin with; however, what we got was a marvelously entertaining and emotional, if a little too safe, film.
The plot does appropriate a lot from the original 1977 Star Wars: a droid carries plans that the good and bad guys want, the heroine is a dreamer on a crummy desert planet, the main villain is a fallen Jedi in a cloak and mask, and there is another huge doomsday device which must be taken out of commission in a space battle. I admit it disappointed me a little, all this familiarity, especially the resurrection of the Death Star concept, which was terrible back in 1983, let alone in 2015. The moment when the Resistance explains that THIS Death Star is planet rather than moon sized, I groaned aloud in the theater. The movie needed to make its own iconic moments instead of appropriating images and lines from the older films.
Aside from a sometimes too fast pace (I really do miss the slower pacing of the original, which gave us forty minutes to set up its universe and main character, though I suppose that is not fashionable these days), this blatant fan servicing is really the film's biggest problem, lingering on nostalgia imagery for much too long; however, is this enough reason to claim the film sucks and should only have one star? Of course not, for the film's greatest strengths are its sense of fun, chemistry between actors, and mythic resonances. The new heroes, Finn, Rey, and Poe, are all likable and flawed, given much more depth than even the Golden Trio in Episode IV were allowed back in 1977. When Harrison Ford isn't on screen, John Boyega and Daisy Ridley steal the show as Finn and Rey, earnest and vulnerable, plus sharing palpable romantic chemistry. Basically, they're the sort of heroes you love watching and cannot wait to watch more of in the next two movies. I was also relieved that Harrison Ford didn't phone his performance in and that he and Carrie Fisher still had a great deal of chemistry.
If there's anything weak with the story, then it's the villains. While Kylo Ren gets more depth and interest as the film goes on, lifting him up from being another uninspired Darth Vader stand-in, the "Big Bad" Snoke is not so interesting. I know no one would ever be able to be as memorable as Emperor Palpatine, who was both threatening and gleefully wicked, but Snoke is just dull, as dull as any ominous, humorless villain in modern Hollywood cinema. There's an overabundance of action scenes as well, but at least writers Abrams and Kasdan allow for character moments in between them. Plus there is genuine tension in them and the light saber fights are emotional and natural-looking again, thank the Lord above.
Overall, the movie does have a little too much fan service, but it is a loving and entertaining flick, with humor that arises from character and not flatulence or blatant theft from masters like Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd, romance that is sweet and understated, and action that never forgets it isn't worth a thing unless we care about the people involved in the chases and big battles. Here's hoping the next film will continue to focus on character and swashbuckling, while also finding its own voice.