The Force is weak with this one...

Rating: 5/10 (21 December 2015)

Alright, let's get it out of the way. Huge fan of the original (Ep IV-VI) trilogy. I thought there were some redeeming things in Ep. I (Darth Maul, Duel of the Fates, Liam Neeson), but 2&3 were forgettable IMHO. I have not liked the Star Trek reboots, but really enjoyed the older Star Treks. Just wanted to give you a little background on other movies so you can understand where my tastes are coming from.
I was not expecting to like this movie before I saw it, due to my dislike of the JJ Treks. But the excitement got to me and by the time it released I was pretty giddy to see another Star Wars after so many years, with the hope that it would redeem the franchise. Seeing some of the set design and the fact that JJ was trying to pay homage to the originals, using some people in costumes as opposed to all CGI for one, really made me feel like this had a chance. Unfortunately, with the exception of a few scenes this left me very disappointed. Let's get to the issues:
Acting - Oscar Isaac (Poe) was my favorite character. I have a slight spoiler here - I hope we get to see more from this guy in the future, as he played the roguish character this series needs. Daisy Ridley and John Boyega do adequate jobs, but nothing to blow your mind. Adam Driver, has a good voice for the villain when the mask is on, but I felt like he was pretty weak when the mask was off - being a Darth Vader fan-boy seemed like a lame reason to be a Sith. The only one of the old cast who got any major screen time was Harrison and I felt like he was just trying to get the cash. He was not channeling the old roguish charm he had in the originals. Also - R2D2 and C3PO were hardly in this at all, and I felt like their banter was sorely needed.
Let's talk plot/story/pacing - The plot is basically a redo of Episode IV. You won't find much originality here. Start off on desert planet Tattoo-er Jakku - check. Young no-body gets involved with a robot with plans to the death -er... a map - check. There's a big super death star that can blow up multiple planets at once and you need a young team of Rebels- er... Resistance fighters to stop it. I can understand wanting to do something familiar to get people back in the groove of SW, but they could have come up with something a little different. I mean, this was done before, and done better (not to mention we've had death stars in two of the originals already - getting tired of them!). All this could be forgiven if you had some good character development to keep you engaged, but that was sadly lacking. I don't know what it is with JJ films but the pacing always feels off. This feels more like a Michael Bay film were the story is throw in quick lines between action scenes. There were hardly any slow spots in this show, it just flowed from action to more action. Again, if you want to really amp up the space battles and force battles I'd be OK with that, after all the space battles in the originals were the best space battles ever. EVER! But aside from the very first flying battle (two tie fighters against the Millennium Falcon), the rest of the battles were just quick flashes where they alternated very quickly between ground and air fights, too quickly to really let either one sink in. The light- saber battles were pretty lame too. Spoiler! - For Kylo Ren being such a supposedly strong villain he gets whooped pretty lamely by an ex-storm trooper (who had no combat prowess, whatsoever) and a newbie Jedi-to-be. Makes sense that they wouldn't be pulling off great light-saber stunts, but still the battles didn't feel all that intense. The biggest plot "surprise" which I won't spoil here but just wanted to point out - was predictable and really didn't serve much of a purpose in my mind.
The music - John Williams is the man. So why did I not even notice his scoring in this movie? Very disappointing.
Final verdict - This movie plays a lot on nostalgia. JJ threw in just about everything he could from the original movies (chess board on the Millennium Falcon). Spoiler - He even brought back the original Darth Vader light-saber that Luke lost in Ep. V. (with no explanation except that it was a story for another time - lame). If this movie was not Star Wars, it would not be getting the excitement it is now. With it being Star Wars I felt like it was an inadequate sequel to the originals, slightly better than the prequels, and was more of a lame homage. I give it a 6 out of 10. You'll see it just to see what happens, but it's not worth much of a second viewing. Again, just my opinion so take it for what it's worth.