A homage that didn't quite hit home.

Rating: 1/10 (24 December 2015)

Star Wars: A Force Awakens (Don't. Spoilers.)
JJ Abrams pays a silent homage to the death of cinema. A quiet admittance that the school of the old has finally given way to the barren, empty landscape of the new. Lucas based his masterpiece on ground- breaking works of Kurosawa's The Final Fortress. This 'new' trilogy however, boorishly begins by playing to the dying notes of its last installment. Same story- scape but out-of-tune and out-of-date.
The film slowly turns its pages of rotting parchment with establishing shots of a broken landscape. Desert. Dry. Barren. Fallen AT-AT walkers. A TIE fighter in pieces. A downed Star Destroyer. No doubt representing the futility of getting anything out of this new story. Poking fun at the rise of numerous celebrities with anything but talent, the story unfolded with faceless, expressionless characters. Young. Unknown. Unfamiliar. In the setting sun of the Jakku desert, one can almost imagine Abram's sillouette in the distance, hands pulling out the empty pocket fabric, bemoaning, 'Look. That's all I've got. Take it and leave.' Once in a while, he'll throw the remeniscing audience a bone. 'Look. Here's your wookie. And there, the millennium falcon. You happy now?'
Here goes the conversation with the cousin when the credits rolled:
Cousin: He didn't need to go confront him, did he?
Me: He didn't. I tell you it's the wife's fault.
I tried to conceptualise the story arc after Episode VI, V and IV in 1999. Childish no doubt. Here's how I would do one part of it today.
Story would have opened in the Cantina, the new main character trying to cut a deal on a second hand spaceship. Talks failed and as the new guy, street- wise, (like a certain smuggler we were once familiar with) tries to worm his way out of the deal, when none other than that same smuggler appearing with his hairy apprentice and pulls him out of the Mexican stand-off. 'It is MY SHIP!' He bellowed. And the newly formed three stooges blast their way through bounty hunters. There you have it. The Solo Entrĕ.
Sure beats suddenly dropping him on the falcon. Alas.. I'm no Abrams. And I'm pretty sure I'm sounding too full of myself here. But I really expected a little more. Just because it worked, it doesn't necessary make it as good by compressing all three parts back into one.(It cannot be a coincidence that this installment consists of the environments present in the original one. Audiences experienced the deserts of Tatooine, the frost of Hoth and the forestry of Endor) It is a fancy idea, I'm not gonna argue with that. But every other attempt to impress feels like one failed CPR after another. When the Empire Struck Back or when the Jedi Returned amongst others, they all followed the same simple story structure. The story held up several plots which are interdependent on the other and one cannot occur without the other happening. It's perfectly alright to repeat, however much more could have been done to intensify the subplots. For example, I would have loved that at a crucial moment, it is Leia who displayed the art of 'this are not the droids you're looking for'. I would also have preferred that audience aren't let in first on the reason why Solo will have a secret solo mission on his own, which is to distract his son. So many could-haves.. but all has beens.
It was amazing back then, when one gradually discovered how Lucas mimed the entire Nazi machinery on-screen into science fiction. From the misnomer 'Stormtroopers', to their military structure and uniforms. Now, barely anything in the story is anywhere near inspiring. Hollywood has forgotten how to portray evil much less good.
With the reportoire of works that he has had, there's no reason for Abram's sub-standard treatment of this story of old. He didn't even try. But he's done it now, rounding off the last set of the trilogy by making it nothing more then a hodge podge series of stories about father-killers. Either the idiot be him, or he's actually a flexible genius to not have Michael Bay-ed every show he directs. Because if anything, this latest piece of work could be a secret parody directed at the dearth of cinematic imagination and how poor audience expectations actually controls the direction of the Star Wars mythos. He at least effectively used the opening scenes of fallen Republic war machines to signify the detachment of the new series to the original stories many were once familiar with. It's a tough job because we must remember that there are varied segments of audiences. Those that missed all the episodes before, those that experienced the second series but not the first. And those in their 30s and 40s who were there since the genesis. On top of these, what was fascinating before may have fallen short because of what's currently hogging audience's and critics' interests. But regardless of these varied considerations, what is core to the business of cinematic magic shldn't have change. Therefore, I would still consider unforgivable that he has dropped the entire franchise into an abyss of uncertainty.
Verdict: 1 out of 5 stars. Nothing remotely redeeming. Mentioned spoilers at the start but I assure you, there's not much more damage I can do from what it has already done to itself.