Good movie, Bad Star Wars

Rating: 5/10 (28 December 2015)

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS Ladies and gentlemen, I really, really wanted to enjoy this movie. I come from a huge Star Wars background. Though I didn't watch any of the 6 in the cinema (as I was too small), I was really looking forward to Episode 7. I've read pretty much every Extended Universe book there is out there, I know that Han Solo was only out-shot twice in his life, I know that at the 'end' of the now gone Extended Universe, the Sith ruled the universe; and I know that Darth Vader had to fight a doppelganger at one point, and put a lightsaber through himself to kill the doppelganger. I also know that these are now non-existent. That is probably my major complaint about the movie; that it killed off so many avenues that previously existed in the Extended Universe. I am aware that the movie was never supposed to be about any of the stories in the Extended Universe; however, that angers me even more, seeing how blatantly Abrams and the other writers drew on such concepts as the star-powered superweapon (as anyone who knows about the Star Forge can tell you) and the concept of a hyperspace-travelling laser weapon. These concepts, including many others, like the fact that map parts were missing which showed the location of something – a concept used many times in the Extended Universe stories - , a New Republic which ruled the universe, fragments of the now-destroyed Empire (Admiral Thrawn, anyone?), were all Extended Universe ideas and stories; the fact that it was stated the film would not be about the Extended Universe followed up by such ripping apart of ideas to create this I call that nothing short of severe hypocrisy, which really sucked some of the fun out for me. I mean, if they were going to borrow so heavily from Extended Universe concepts, why not just make the movie Extended Universe friendly to begin with? They've literally discarded all of the extra stories about Han Solo and Leia that the Extended Universe was full of. I feel that this cannibalization of Extended Universe concepts to suit their own aims was really poorly done and it really ruined large parts of the film for me. Leaving aside my woes about the destruction of the Extended Universe and the simultaneous picking (like vultures) from some of the concepts that were so dear to it, the film itself was not Star Wars material. The film featured many action scenes, which we all like, but those very action scenes fell short of having gravity. While I appreciate the nostalgia (I did in fact exclaim with delight when Han and Chewie first stepped on the Millennium Falcon), it goes to show that Abrams pretty much chose to recycle the old concepts of the Death Stars 1 and 2. While I certainly love trench shots of X-Wings (with a new paintjob!) desperately trying to blow up the superweapon before it fires, it felt that I was simply rewatching Grand Moff Tarkin getting blown up all over again, albeit with better effects. The First Order was a nice touch and I appreciated the 'fragment of the Empire' idea, but oh my, when, in the 30 years after the fall of the Empire, were they able to even build up such a powerful civilization? After all, the Empire spent around 19 years actually building the original Death Star; how on earth did a shadow of the power of the Empire build a planetbuster superweapon in only 30? Moving on, there were certain other problems inherent to Supreme Leader Snoke, the 'Knights of Ren' and Kylo himself. WHEN, exactly, in the 30-year span, did Snoke suddenly appear as a veritable Sith lord out of nowhere (when the Rule of Two dictated only the Emperor and Darth Vader should have continued the Sith order) with an apprentice and an entire ORDER of the Knights of Ren? Here we have one of the major plot holes that seems to litter the film as it progresses. These plot holes, the Snoke-Ren appearance aside, are also evident in Han and Leia's separation (how did you think you could explain that with maybe 10 lines of dialogue?), how the old man at the start even got his hands on the information to Luke's location, Luke's complete absence for such a long period of time, the fact that New Republic did next to nothing to stop the First Order (since apparently, they're strong enough to build hyperspace planetbusters) and many more. However, I sincerely enjoyed the humor and most of the acting and it did feel great to see Harrison Ford again, in the tired but mischievous, old smuggler; I'd probably say that that was the highlight of the movie for me ("TELL THAT TO KANJIKLUB!"). What really crushed the movie for me was his death, which I understand the reasons behind, in that Harrison wanted out and Solo couldn't really be played by anyone else (don't you dare, Abrams). Han Solo's death was the most unnecessary film death I have seen in any movie ever. It was supposed to add the much-needed gravity to the film but it fell short; Han Solo's drop reminded me of Bespin and Luke, but Han died for nothing; the entire plot revolving around his son was like a bad joke, after all, we've already had a 'No, I am your father' moment before. Despite all this, I did like the movie in some ways. Abrams managed to pack in acceptable action scenes and a couple of nice jokes, which I felt were spot on (BB-8 and the lighter, for instance). VERDICT: Abrams pulled off a nice movie which, if considered as any generic action movie, really did well. My fundamental complaint is that it was not Star Wars in the sense that, after Episode 6, it built on practically no story, created plots (or tried to) with little to no backstory and failed to deliver for me.