Disappointing movie

Rating: Null/10 (19 December 2015)

Saw the new one last night. It was decent. I enjoyed watching it. Might even see it again. For a Star Wars fan after so many years this was like a cold glass of water after being stranded in the desert for an extended period. But would probably rank it last among the 7 Star Wars movies so far.
Fin with no training takes on Ren who had extensive training, apparently under Luke as a kid and then for years under this "Supreme Leader". That saber battle should have lasted all of 2 seconds.
Speaking of "Supreme Leader" that title feels like something from a cartoon.
Rey who we are led to believe had been abandoned as a child and has lived as a scavenger with no family or anyone to look after her. She is easily captured by Ren but fortunately she is strong with the force and thus able to resist Ren's mind probing. Then with no prior Jedi training apparently remembers the myths about Jedi powers and remembers she can tell the guard what to do. She too like Fin is able to take on the Ren guy in a saber battle. But she not only lasts longer she had him beat and could have finished him if the planet had not started ripping apart separating them.
I can buy that Fin and Rey are strong with the force. But their skills are too advanced for people with no apparent training.
And yet another death star? What pray tell will the story line be? Solo sums it up with just a few sentences. There is always a single weakness to attack, always a shield someone needs to bring down first.
Then there was Leia. She was supposed to be the next big hope if Luke failed. Decades have passed and she shows no indication she has any more force skills than I do. There is the brief look of agony as Solo gets killed. Part of the problem here I suppose is in the decades since episode VI I have come to expect more from female heroines. Movie would have been much more believable if Leia and Rey had met and there as a scene or two showing Leia providing some training. Our imagination could have filled in that much more took place off camera just as we did with Yoda training Luke.
Inconsistencies: The new order has control of the storm troopers, but not the galactic republic and the restored galactic senate. Leia and her buddies have control of that. Yet with the support of an entire galactic republic behind them Leia's group is still described as rebels.
This movie provides little information on what happened between Vader redeeming himself by killing the emperor and now. Luke tried rebuilding the Jedi order but was betrayed by one person who was apparently Kylo Ren. And that brief explanation is all we get.
The plot and writing had the feel of a fan film. The special effects were much better than any fan film which one would expect with the much larger budget. But there have probably been several fan films that had better Saber fights than the brief ones we get here.
Kylo Ben. No wait, Kylo Ren. Several times in the movie it sounded like they were pronouncing his name like it started with "B". Several times it sounded like "R". These are professional actors. Can someone not have told them what his name was and how to properly pronounce it? In summary, I enjoyed it. I am a Star Wars fan. But reminded me of the original Star Trek movie that seemed to be making a movie for the sake of making a movie and giving fans something to spend money on. A warmed over plot in need of some originality.