The Force Awakens is really just another New Hope

Rating: Null/10 (17 December 2015)

The first (or fourth) Star Wars worked so well because it was something new. The older mentor Jedi walks the hero through a desert planet opening,finds Han Solo and Chewbacca, gets cut down by the Sith while X-Wings fight Tie Fighters, a giant planet destroyer is itself destroyed and the forces of good are saved.
If you're thinking of A New Hope, The Force Awakens (or minus the the specifics of Han Solo, X-Wings and the planet destroying weapon replaced by another weapon) you would be right, but what I find most disappointing is that J.J Abrams, who is not known for avoiding innovation, basically remade the old Star Wars formula. I see no Star Wars revolution replacing the known and loved young protagonists of A New Hope with new characters while the roles of the older mentors are now the cast of the 1977 title.
I will give the film credit for a few fan pleasing moments. I found Rey a very fun character and felt she acted well. Seeing Han Solo being himself for a few minutes was great, as was watching the Millennium Falcon fly again. I was positively surprised when Keylo Ren actually took off his mask and seeing the downed Star Destroyer in the sand was visually impressive. However, these few tidbits were too few and far between in a story that was as lacking in uniqueness as most of the new characters in it.
It is our collective loss that an innovator like J.J. Abrams basically redid A New Hope to a T, from the familiar opening of a droid wandering the desert and anti climactic ending with an X-Wing Tie Fighter battle less exciting than the original. I understand that there is a fear to try something new when there is a formula that is proved to work but the Star Wars galaxy far far away is a huge place, and I personally would rather a director take a risk and show us the characters we love doing new things. Watching this movie I felt that I'd seen it all before and if I knew that I'd be watching A New Hope again I would not have hurried to watch it opening night knowing that I'd already seen it 38 years ago.