An Average Movie

Rating: 5/10 (22 December 2015)

As I write this a few days after the film opened, it has broken all sorts of records and made huge sums of money. As a business project, this has been a success.
As a piece of art, it is an average movie. Nothing more, nothing less. It entertains, but does not aspire to reach new heights, push the envelope, or hope to pen memorable lines. As an average movie, you could replace sets, vehicles, characters and it would still be just a movie. As a Star Wars film, I had hoped for more. I really did, but I was not going to sacrifice my judgements just because it is Star Wars. If anything, with all the lessons learned from recent failures, this one should have been gunning for an Oscar nomination. It will make money now. It will make money in box sets. Star Wars is big business.
Its success makes me wonder - is everyone so desperate to be "in" on the party that they NEeeeEEeeeeEeeeEED this extension to the trilogy? What is strange is a comment made by a 30-something Latina woman I am associated with on FB. She was angry that a FB friend told her a spoiler about the film and it made me wonder if this was 1985 and someone was talking about Empire Strikes Back, would she even care? What I mean by this is Star Wars became more of a marketing event for so many people who missed out. It is the Lalapalooza to Woodstock. The hope that "you too can rock out, just like we did." No. No, you can't. The feel and the vibe are irreplaceable. The best you can hope for is the DVD on your 50" TV, but you will not have the theater experience from 1980.
As a modern movie, you can watch this on fast forward. The "epic, sweeping vistas" do little, the characters will probably develop, and a fault I find is some contagion from the second trilogy.
Spoiler Alert Area ========================= Contagion from Lucas' second trilogy - the prequels 1. A lot of slapping together of plans 2. A lot of learning of the force in a super short amount of time. It makes me wonder why Yoda was ever reluctant to train Luke if Daisy can use the Jedi mind trick without ever being shown it or any sort of training. Which begs the question, why train Jedi from childhood? And if you did, wouldn't those kids grow up to be Super Duper Jedi? How did they ever fall victim to any sort of traps?
General Detractions to the movie ========================= 3. A lot ofrepeating from SW IV, V, and VI. 4. Princess Leia sounds like she is a retiree from northern Minnesota. 5. Filming was top notch, but lacked the essence of Star Wars. 6. Another mystic, tiny alien creature to teach people about the force (Yoda replacement). 7. R2 D2's reveal was lame. 8. 3 to 7 minus 4 equals a lot of Hollywood conveniences. It felt like the writers were not trying too hard, which brings me to...
Ethos, which is an argument based on character or authority. Since this movie is now Star Wars' cannon, it had the benefit of riding the franchise's coat tails. (That is a guaranteed $100 million right there) If this were fan fiction, a true rating would come through. As of December 23, 2015, the Force Awakens has an 8.7 rating, which I would reserve for Best Picture Oscar Winners, but I think a lot of people are drunk on a Star Wars buzz. My opinion is it is an average action movie - good special effects, mediocre acting and a story line that with a lot to answer for.