Money Maker, Nothing More

Rating: 1/10 (26 December 2015)

In a nutshell, if you want to know how this movie plays out, watch A New Hope.
This is what corporate takeover does to a beloved and one of the most creative movie franchise in history. It takes what has worked before - the original trilogy (1977-1983), edit some bits and add contemporary flair to the film and voilà! Force Awakens is what you get.
If this movie had decided to work on something new with the younger Skywalker generation and not focus on a familiar rehash of the main character found in a desert planet and the Death Star, the movie would have been fresh and JJ Abrams would not have to hear the common criticism about it.
What bothers me also about the movie apart from the lack of creativity in the film is that it fails to bridge the prequels and the originals together. Yes, the prequels are not great films, but it would be pure ignorance to pretend that they have not happened, especially if these prequels are OFFICIALLY canon of the series. This film had so much potential, but it failed to deliver a refreshing and redeeming movie that could have rectified some contents of the prequels rather than hardly mentioning their events at all. It is a continuation of the original trilogy AND the prequel trilogy.
In the end, I can only hope that the next two sequels would bring in new adventures - things that have not been done before and that can ultimately tie all that is Star Wars to a fitting and satisfying end.