Soulless, Assembly-Line Movie

Rating: 3/10 (24 December 2015)

I wanted so badly to love this movie. But now I feel like I owe George Lucas a huge apology. At least Lucas tried to do an original story in his prequels. At least he allowed his characters to evolve.
Much has already been said about the repetitive, regurgitated nature of the "story" in Episode VII. This is not a crafted narrative. It's a Frankenstein movie--a stitched-together mess of JJ's favorite moments from the original trilogy. Starting with Luke 2.0, living on Tatooine 2.0, who runs into R2D2 2.0, carrying information critical to the Rebellion 2.0, then they run into Han and Chewy 1.0, visit the Cantina 2.0, eventually do battle with Vader 2.0 and the Empire 2.0 by blowing up the Death Star 3.0. Yes, we get a more politically-correct cast with a female lead and a black secondary lead, but those changes are purely COSMETIC. That doesn't make this movie fresh when the story itself is nothing more than a warmed-over, 38-year-old carcass.
JJ said his only criteria when putting together this story was, "What delights us?" So now we know that what "delights" JJ is repetition. That what he adored about the original trilogy was THINGS and SETPIECES, not the CHARACTERS.
Hey JJ, you know what delights me? A GOOD STORY! An original story that puts the CHARACTERS first. Where the characters have identifiable motives that drive what they do. Where the characters evolve and GROW over the course of the story.
Let's start with Rey the Wondergirl who is instantly good at every single thing she tries. Nothing against Daisy Ridley. She was the best thing about this film and did a great job with what she was given, which unfortunately wasn't much. Rey's only identifiable dramatic need is to find her family again. Which never happens--or if it does (assuming she is Luke's daughter or Han and Leia's) neither she, nor the audience ever finds out by the end of the movie. Because, you know, mystery box.
Without the family motive, which never gets resolved, Rey is nothing more than a tumbleweed floating through the events of this movie. For all her supposed girl-power, Rey spends the entire movie REACTING to events, tagging along, running from danger, all motion with no purpose. The moment when the force finally awakens within her rings completely hollow, because Rey never wanted it and has done absolutely nothing to EARN her sudden status as an insta-Jedi.
A film like this is only as good as its villain. Kylo, aka Ben Solo, has no character arc because the film never even hints at WHY he turned against his family. According to the novelization of the film (and it's pathetic that I need the novelization to tell me anything about the motivation of the film's main villain) the explanation is that Snoke has been watching over Ben since he was a baby and basically took him over from birth, while Han, Leia, and Luke all stood by. FEEBLE!!! This reduces Ben Solo to nothing more than a helpless puppet, and makes Luke, Han, and Leia into passive weaklings.
Which brings me to the heroes of the original trilogy, the characters that I (and so many millions of others) have loved for over 30 years. Han and Leia may look their age, but they are WRITTEN like they've been preserved in amber since 1977, with every bit of character growth from ESB and ROTJ wiped out like it never happened. Leia is still the exact same woman she was at the start of ESB, so wrapped up in the Rebellion/Resistance that she is incapable of maintaining a close relationship. But hey, Leia is a "general" now so I guess we're supposed to be so impressed with her new title that we don't care she failed as a wife and as a parent.
Han Solo fares even worse, as JJ and Kasdan are determined to shove Han in the wayback machine and fashion him back into the exact same rogue he was at the very beginning of the first movie. Again, all of Han's character growth in ESB and ROTJ vanishes in a puff of smoke. He is a failure as a husband and as a father; worse, Han ran out on his family like a coward when the going got rough. All because JJ and Kasdan fell in love with the early version of Han and god forbid they should let him grow or evolve.
Luke fares better, if only because he is barely in the movie at all. But we discover that Luke, too, ran out on his family and friends when the going got tough. And then inexplicably (and rather cruelly) he left behind pieces of a map so that his family and friends would have to risk their lives if they ever wanted to find him again.
As for the death of Han Solo, I was OK with the idea of him dying, but the WAY they killed him was lame. I thought Han would at least get a hero's death, sacrificing himself for someone he loved. Ha! Han's death on that catwalk served no dramatic purpose other than shock value, then Han gets mourned for about 10 seconds before he is forgotten for good, with no memorial whatsoever.
Why even bother bringing back the classic characters at all if you are going to treat them like this? Oh yeah: $$$$$.
If JJ and Kasdan had spent even half the time crafting a good original story as they spent lovingly re-creating moments from the original trilogy, THAT would have been a proper homage to Star Wars. This rehash won't stand the test of time. It may be raking in the great reviews and big bucks now (so did the prequels) but this movie is not going to age well. Years from now, it will be remembered as the lazy, cynical cash-grab that it is.