A beautifully visualized ode that falls short of finding the pieces

Rating: 6/10 (22 February 2016)

There is a significant difference between a film that is made as a film, and that which is made to be the first of a trilogy, and that is the defining difference between George Lucas' A New Hope and the excruciatingly derivative remake - The Force Awakens. While both films have a laundry list of similarities to the characters, concepts and story progression, where one is a fairly complete film, with poor acting and some one-dimensional characters, the other, and more modern rendition, fails on many levels to even find its legs.
That isn't to say however that the film cannot stand up to some scrutiny. I for one was pleased to find a number of criticisms from early responses to the film, were woefully unfounded. The reveals of the Millennial Falcon and Harison Ford's Han Solo were fresh, and logical, even if they were evidently rushed.
Other elements were rightly criticized, like the illogical and unemotional end of the Republic - an element to the story that should have been, like many other scenes, reordered in editing to tell a cohesive story. Therein lies the flaw that takes the legs out of this film - choppy, illogical editing that felt as though they were working with angles that should have been re-shot, or story elements that defeated themselves due to a flawed order. A first-film of a trilogy needs to establish the setting and the major characters. It's not a tall order, but in this case, JJ Abrams seems to have taken that for granted, leaving people with more questions at the end of the film, than have been answered. For example, weighty character reveals lose all impact when you don't know the characters, or their circumstance - making some characters appear unbelievably stupid, or inconsistent in their actions, a problem that could have been corrected with more character development or a better exposition on setting.
Plot holes abound, but in the end, the film performs on a visual scale, with plenty of exciting combat, dog-fights and special effects that are all in line with the original trilogy. For those that like a story that makes no attempt to explain its twists, a rich riddle of incongruence's will be found to speculate and discuss around. For myself, this film crawled over the finish line.