Lazy remake of episode IV. Star Wars in name only. Abrams ruins Star Wars.

Rating: 3/10 (21 December 2015)

First off let me say that I actually enjoyed the prequels. To be sure, they had an overabundance of CGI and some wooden performances but they had the involvement of George Lucas. And he was true to his original vision. All of the situations in the prequel trilogy were in his early drafts back in the 70s. Of course they weren't as good as the originals but how could they be. I hated JJ Abrams Star Trek movies he essentially destroyed the franchise by disrespecting the fans and the material. Here he does the laziest thing imaginable. He recycles the first film(which by the way is the best one to me at least-better than the Empire strikes back because it is the only film in the series which stands on its own. There were a hundred different ways they could have gone with this and he chose to remake Episode IV. Daisy Ridley is good but the character of Finn was a joke. And Kylo Ren?! Are you kidding me? Say what you will about Hayden Christensen in the prequels at least his fall had resonance. Kylo is a joke. Why does he wear a mask? He doesn't need it. Other reviewers on this site have mentioned the plot holes and I will only touch on it briefly. Finn knows how to use a lightsaber?! And Rey knows how to use the force so quickly?!. Even if she is Luke's daughter which I suspect she is she shouldn't have learned that quickly. Lawrence Kasdan who was the co-writer should be ashamed. I think he did it for the paycheck This movie is a cash grab nothing more. It will make a ton of money and sell a lot of toys. The worst part was the death of Han Solo. This was such a cheap moment and played strictly for shock value. This character, one of the greatest in movie history deserved a better ending than this. This is cynical lazy filmmaking. It is essentially a bad fan made film. The best thing about it was the use of practical effects. The original trilogy(and to a lesser extent the prequels) gave you a sense of another time and place. This movie didn't There was no magic. The worst part was how did the First Order come to be? The Empire was destroyed at the end of Return of the Jedi. Was the Republic that careless that they would have allowed this to happen again? This movie is Star Wars in name only. If you want to see the real story watch the prequels and the original trilogy. George Lucas was involved in those films for better or worse and they are his movies. This is a copy and a cheap one at that.