Soulless collection of recycled plot elements and ideas

Rating: Null/10 (22 December 2015)

As somebody who grew up with the magic of Star Wars as one of the defining movies of an entire generation it pains me to see what has become of this galaxy far, far away. The story is a carbon copy of Episode IV. I was afraid of giving spoilers but if you have seen the original Star Wars then you already know much of this movie: Main protagonist flees from a desert planet with secret plans, they find a weakness to a super weapon and a ridiculously small number of fighters manages to destroy it. What else is there to say? The main villain, Kylo Ren, is a pathetic weakling with daddy issues controlled by some unimpressive CGI "Supreme Leader". The new main heroine manages to master years of Jedi training within days which is just the tip of an iceberg of plot holes. Nearly every five minutes or so I was wondering:"How did they know that? Where did they come from all of a sudden? Who are those guys? Why would they do that?" Somehow, the writers must have sensed how deep, deep in trouble they were so they went for a cheap shock moment in order to evoke some kind of emotional response from their viewers but it was too little too late. This movie has a weak and unimaginative story. Sure, the movie looks nice and I liked the acting by Daisy Ridley and John Boyega which made me give the movie my final rating but I left the theater with this slightly nauseating feeling that I had just fallen for another Disney marketing hype. They tried to play it safe by giving fans more of the same with a modern twist. Maybe I expected too much but I had higher hopes than getting "Star Wars: The forced awakening!"