Star Wars: The Next Generation

Rating: 7/10 (27 December 2015)

So, was it good? Short answer Yes with an If, long answer No with a But. SW:TFA is what seems to be a trend with JJ Abrams films; outstanding visuals, but a week story that misses the big picture.
Short answer, yes the film is a good time at the movies and very enjoyable to watch, but misses a lot of potential because the story was recycled and superficial.
Long answer, the original Star Wars saga combined concepts of religion, politics, and classic tragedies/comedies of the human condition. The Force Awakens recycles snippets of popular situations to create stunning visuals, but lack any substance forming a 2 hour long trailer. The story lacks the depth of the original as if the point was completely missed. All six original films can be summed up as the redemption of Anakin Skywalker. Where this new series needed to go is to complete Anakin's prophecy of bringing balance to the Force and explain what that actually means. Real world example: Adolf Hitler died in 1945. His actions were terrible and brought that terror to the whole world during his life, but the events he set in motion lead after his death to the rise of the United States as a superpower, cold war and sparked a technological revolution that shaped the world as it is today. The world did not go back to the 1920's after his death. It continued to be in a type of chaos for decades eventually becoming something completely new. This is the type of post Anakin direction this story needed to go. How did his actions in life continue to shape the galaxy after his death?
The opportunity for secondary story elements was lost also. In the vacuum of power left by any totalitarian ruler you will see many warlords try to fill that void. Kind of sort of hinted at but not really illustrated to any great degree. Showing the dead remnants of the empire, using the leftovers and getting back to the dirty universe was a fantastic choice by Abrams. However, the larger structure of society trying to reorganize was absent. The Rebels of the old empire are now referred to as the Resistance. Resistance from what? An example of a recycled concept without thought to why. The enemies should be the resistance now, resisting the reformation of the Republic or some other type of democracy.
In TFA there is a new Death Star like ship/weapon that must be destroyed. This new movie needed something new and different since the circumstances that created the Death Star no longer exist. The Death Star should be an obsolete concept in an age long past. The new Death Star like ship and black masks seem like they were thrown in because Star Wars had cool stuff like that, and does not recognize that these elements were manifestations of a deeper story. The Darth Vader suit came about when Anakin gave up his humanity, not just because it looked menacing. Also, Stormtroopers are in the new movie, but are much the same as they were before. What I was hoping for was an illustration of what would have happened to them when the sole direction in their lives "the emperor" was gone. Do they become vagrants since they are not genetically capable of self-direction? Do they desperately search for someone to follow? TFA doesn't really address that. Instead we get Fin who is a Stormtrooper deserter with a weak explanation as to why that doesn't follow any common sense in relation to the previous series. A different explanation could have worked better that fit more with the history of the Stormtroopers; flawed methods to create them outside of Kamino maybe, leading to imperfect soldiers with anomalies?
The Good: It was a lot of fun to watch and visually stunning. The Bad: A week superficial story that missed too many opportunities for Godfather-like greatness.