No One Will Watch this Years From Now

Rating: 3/10 (19 December 2015)

'The Force Awakens' is essentially a fanboy's (J.J. Abrams') homage to the original Star Wars trilogy, full of old-time favorites (the Millennium Falcon! Han Solo's smuggler woes! A trash compactor joke!) and updated with PC casting choices (a woman jedi! Miles from 'Lost'! A black lead!). Unfortunately, while Abrams may have what it takes to get a movie as expensive as Star Wars made, he doesn't have what it takes to develop an interesting story. The film is full of convenient plot twists (Finn crashes in the desert of a planet he's not familiar with and nonetheless manages to find who he was looking for in a matter of minutes; Rey has no trouble utilizing her nascent jedi powers, even though Luke had to undergo significant training with Yoda to use his), as well as cliché dialogue (while their ship's under attack, Han Solo remarks, "This is not how I imagined my day would go!").
In order to develop a story on par with the original trilogy, you need a writer who's genuinely INSPIRED to do so, not someone who simply WISHES they could.
Oh, and there was also a character with a Scottish accent, which just made no sense.