A New Hope Awakens...with the same plot lines (spoilers abound)

Rating: 6/10 (22 December 2015)

The good: Fun, re-watchable, roller coaster type movie with very fast pacing. John Boyega was a standout & Harrison was as snappy as ever. Great action overall, fun choreography of lightsaber fights,etc
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The bad: The same story, EXACT story, as the original Star Wars. The big threat? A bigger Death star. The 3rd one. With the same easily destructible "tunnel" area. They even copied the exact same ideas for a "cantina" and a "team meeting around a holo table" to map out the rebel attack. Come on. I paid for a new movie, not a rerun of the original. Very uninspired.
Rey is Luke v2.o, almost to a tee, until the bad writing takes place and she goes from stick fighting 2 no name alien thugs on Jakku in the intro of her character, to becoming a Master Jedi within 20 minutes of her getting screen time.
Touching up on that note, Luke's character took 3 movies, 1 lost arm (to Vader), and almost dying a couple of times, until he BARELY defeated Vader (whose power diminished drastically after Obi kicked his butt and chopped him up). Not to mention, Luke was NOT able to kill the Emperor. Vader had to save him.
Rey takes on a trained(since birth, by Luke) Sith Commander, with little problem. They stop fighting in the middle of the fight for her to "look within" for 5 seconds (it was quiet for dramatic effect but failed quite miserably as the timing was "off" for that to even happen in such a dynamic duel), and then literally she becomes a Jedi Master with a lightsaber, proceeding to defeat him.
Another ridiculous Rey moment starts from the very start of her intro to the audience. She, out of nowhere, pilots the Millennium Falcon, as well as Han & Chewie in their twilight, with NO EXPERIENCE, while being chased by Tie fighters through the innards of a downed Star Destroyer. WHAT? HOW?
Horribly lazy & bad writing.
The pacing of the movie allowed for no character development, unless it was instant. She INSTANTLY knew what to do, without any knowledge of the situation or the ship, etc. He INSTANTLY thought of something that totally worked without any prior knowledge or education about the subject matter. Everything had to be instant, because there simply was no time.
The script is what irks me the most.
CG in some parts, was sub par. A lot of times used needlessly (unlike the originals). Characters which could've been cast as actors, and used prosthetics, were pushed to CG for no reason at all. Snoke & Maz specifically.
Cinematography was made for a Disney ride & feels video game-y. Lots of upside down, and side to side flipping camera angles that trail the action, all mixed in with GoPro's on XWings. For non action scenes, it was anywhere between mediocre to great, but very all over the place as a package.
The dialogue wasn't much better, but still a step above what Lucas was writing in the prequels.
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Final thought, a fan boy (JJ) and a big corp (Disney) teamed up to make a safe (unoriginal), toy commercial with park ride implications.
Lucas at least had the balls to explore new terrain, while making some screw ups in the process. ALL prequels were new, ACTUALLY new, movies. This is a remake with a new cast and more CG than needed.
Your kids will love it, and you will find it very re-watchable because it literally has no depth. I liked it in theaters as a joy- ride (much like i experience Fast & Furious movies), but i'm disappointed as a Star Wars fan.
6/10 due to lack of originality & badly written shallow characters