Not what it should have been

Rating: 6/10 (21 December 2015)

This wasn't a bad movie; it certainly wasn't like the prequels. Unlike them, it was much closer to the spirit of the original movies: too close. Instead of being it's own movie, TFA seems more like a shot-by-shot remake of A New Hope. The same basic story is there, complete with a third death star ("the starkiller") and an x- wing raid on the station. It goes far beyond being an homage and simply repackages the original elements, to the point it feels like forced nostalgia, and that JJ Abrams (who is usually a great director) isn't producing his own unique creation, but is simply remaking a film from his childhood. Not only is it not original, but the scale isn't that grand. As bad as the prequels were, they at least attempted (and often succeeded) to have a grand and epic scale; vast city-planets, volcano worlds, massive space battles between huge fleets, and other epic features. The music, too, in the prequels was grand and sweeping, some of the best movie music there is, in my opinion. The acting and writing were certainly bad, but the movies themselves had ambition. TFA has enough ambition to be a re-shoot of ANH, and not much else. The locations (with the exception of the Starkiller) are small and closed in, there aren't too many new aliens, the planets aren't very exotic, and none of the music really stands out. The political setting, too, is underdeveloped (The New Republic gets destroyed, but you know so little about them that it's almost meaningless). This is Episode 6.5, not Episode 7. It isn't a bad film, but it's nothing close to what it should have been.