A Disappointed Dieheart Star Wars Fan

Rating: 3/10 (21 December 2015)

I have been a Star Wars fan all of my life. While I was not born before the original trilogy was released I have watched them countless times and have been around for the release of every prequel trilogy movie. I've connected with each character and the stories that are told are timeless. With hearing the release of the new Episode VII and with J.J. Abrams directing it, I was definitely skeptical about it from the start. However being the dedicated fan I have been I gave the movie a chance and went to see it opening night. Unfortunately my skepticism would be right and I would be left disappointed. The plot of this movie is nothing new. A basic remake of A New Hope with some character changes is all I felt throughout the entire movie. Nothing stood out and nothing was new. The characters as a whole had no depth to them and I could not connect with characters such as Rey so easily as I did with Luke and Anakin in the past. The movie as a whole felt too forced upon the audience (no pun intended). The filmmakers obviously tried too hard to bring back the grandeur and depth of the original trilogy and in my opinion failed miserably. Another point that also annoyed me was the fact of the many plot holes in the movie. How does Rey coincidentally find Luke's original lightsaber in the box even though it fell off of Cloud City in Episode V with Luke's hand? And the fact to not even explain how it ended up with Maz. It just seemed like an easy way out on the filmmakers part to introduce Luke's original (Anakin's old) lightsaber once again. Plus the fact that Rey can use the force so well by the end of the movie to even get the lightsaber out of Kylo Ren's grasp when Luke could not even do that until the end of Episode V when he was already an almost fully trained jedi. Rey just realized she can use the force and already is able to do this? Doesn't make any sense. For a long movie, plots such as these felt way too rushed. I wish more character development had been taken place as from this movie Kylo just seems like a whining "wanna-be" Darth Vader and Fin seems like just a clueless Han Solo. Speaking of character development, I wish Captain Phasma was elaborated on instead of being shown for only five minutes and half of it being easily taken down by Chewbacca. The antagonists do not seem as threatening as they did in previous movies. Scenes like this and making Kylo already struggling with Rey already make them seem weak. The only thing I will give credit to this movie are the dogfights in space and on Jakku. These were both visually appealing and the only scenes that brought me back to the original movies I know and love. I'm all for more sequels to Star Wars, but do it right at least. Making a movie such as Star Wars is a powerful thing. No matter if its good or bad people from all over the world are going to watch because of the sole fact its Star Wars. But for a dedicated fan like me who has seen the other 6 movies countless of times, make it worth while. Stop milking a successful and timeless story and instead make original yet nostalgic editions to it. I'm only hoping Episode VIII and IX are able to do this. Until then I'm stuck with this unoriginal sequel.