Just an action-adventure rehash of Episodes IV and V

Rating: 6/10 (26 March 2016)

This movie has space ships, robots, exotic planets, and aliens, but it is not up to the standard of sci-fi space opera that George Lucas set for the first 6 movies. Abrams gives a contemporary action-adventure overhaul to Lucas' universe similar to the way he bastardized Roddenberry's creation in the Star Trek movies.
The Force is treated like a joke with which anyone can pick up and do crazy stuff with little to no training. Things Luke and Anakin needed two whole movies to get the hang of are done in seconds by Rey, the young female lead. Lucas gave some semblance of reverence to the mighty power and wonder of the Force. It gave the movies a spiritual aspect that is part of the essence of what makes Star Wars. The Force in this movie seems begrudgingly added in for cool special effects and to keep old Star Wars fans happy. It's like Abrams just took what he liked from the movies - flashy laser swords, fast ships, and shiny military armor - and thought that was all there was to Star Wars.
The master and apprentice theme is thrown away for this movie, as the unstoppable Rey picks everything up on her own without any help. Han the father figure in this, but Rey is so independent that she can even fly Han's ship better than he can. Rey is a prodigy of unprecedented levels. Even boy wonder Anakin had flaws and needed someone to guide him. Rey doesn't need help.
The First Order, like everything else in this movie, is just a spammed-up version of something in the original trilogy, in this case the Galactic Empire. The big hologram of the emperor is now a huge, lifelike hologram. The cool red light-saber of Darth Vader is now a red light-saber with inexplicable perpendicular side blades to look like a crucifix. The mighty Death Star is now a whole planet that can somehow destroy planets a couple solar systems away. The Nazi Germany imagery that was subtle in the original Empire is now blatantly obvious. Storm troopers now have cool looking silver generals. Last but not least the evil masked lord is a more powerful than the original - now he can use the force to FREEZE laser beams from blasters in suspended animation.
Really, this whole movie is so derivative and unimaginative that I was missing the prequels. Sure, they were not the most well written masterpieces in cinema, but they expanded the universe every installment - and this is a big universe we are talking about here. This movie plays it safe - too safe. I gave it a mediocre rating because in is very mediocre and conservative. Fearing a second backlash akin to the one the prequels received, Disney probably had this movie stick to the original formula and feature as many derivative vehicles and armor suits as possible for maximum merchandising. At some points it seems almost like a parody of Star Wars, and not a good one. If you want a good derivative parody, I recommend Spaceballs. It's much better than this nostalgia fest.