The Forced Awakening

Rating: 6/10 (16 December 2015)

Edit-- Went with my original title. Originally put "A New Hope" because felt my title was harsh, but not anymore. Also saved my newbies rant for the end. --
While it's always nice to pay tribute to the originals, the film literally tried to replicate them. It follows the same formula as the original Star Wars (IV), which is to have Indiana Jones type non- stop chase/adventure in Space. It succeeds in keeping you on your toes, cheering on the heroes, but it failed at delivering what really made Star Wars what it is.
First, it doesn't quite capture the grandeur of space and the "feel" of Star Wars' galaxy that was present in the original trilogy, and overly emphasized on in the prequel trilogy. I'm not even sure I caught one of the planets' name. Even John Williams' score felt a little weak compared to the originals, The Phantom Menace's "Duel of Fates" and Revenge of the Sith's "Battle of The Heroes". Worse yet, the new characters. The originals had charismatic characters with just enough depth to have you care about them. The prequel trilogy had far too much depth for most people's liking. In this, the new characters were given a decent introduction, but went no where with it. Nothing but one liners, it felt like. Furthermore, where are the great lightsaber like the one from I and III? I understand wanting to distance this film from the prequel trilogy, but COME ON! The one thing those films nailed were those battles. I also have minor issues that I'd like to list, such as referring to a star in a galaxy far, far away as "The Sun" but I'm going to ignore them in this review. Finally, my biggest complaint has to be the main villain. In the first hour, I honestly thought that he was going to be better than Darth Vader. He was evil, mysterious and had such strong presence. That did not last, as "Vader" rapidly transformed into Anakin from Attack of the Clones. I would like to rant on this a little more, but I'm afraid it may contain spoilers.
Trying to please such a wide audience is not an easy job. JJ did better than I expected, but it could've been a lot better. I only fear he will believe the reviews of vocal, easily impressed fans who want nothing but to belong to a "nerd" group because apparently that's what cool people do nowadays. I have witnessed the slow death of many film and video game franchises because of this phenomenon.
The Force Awakens tried to do far too much in 2 hours, and ended up delivering a somewhat forgettable chase film with Star Wars references and characters. That said, I'm not going to give up on this trilogy just yet.