Recycled Retreading Relived Remake

Rating: 3/10 (27 December 2015)

I've always been in the minority that liked I-III. Sure there were the gaffs like Jar-Jar, but on the whole they had a fascinating story to tell and didn't retread over old ground. You can quibble about how the tale of the Jedi, the origins of the Empire, the Storm Troopers, and the Emperor were told, but it was interesting to see all of this fleshed out. And the development of Annakin Skywalker was well conceived and far more believable than I suspect many of the critics could make it if they had a pen, paper, and a hundred years to write. And, now that I've seen Episode VII, I can confidently say that the best is behind us.
Clearly inspiration was gone and the only thought put into producing this movie was to how to remix tried and true formulas in a different enough way that it could be sold as a new episode rather than a remake. I won't bother with the gory details of all the parallels, which would only serve to label this review as containing spoilers and to decrease the internal stability in my digestive tract. Element after element was shamelessly copied from Episode IV. Apparently the idea was not to give the generation that grew up with the originals something more, but to give the latest generation a Star Wars of its own, relying on the elements that Lucas's genius put together the first time around to work again.
And, unsurprisingly, they do. Behold the average rating of the movie, nearly as high as the original. And given the harsh critical response all around to Episodes I-III, who can blame them? Clearly ingenious storywriting, beautiful special effects, and bold venturing into new narrative territory were not rewarded in the modern cinema marketplace. What's going to rake in the money is tired repetition of the same formulas, perhaps with a few more explosions per minute added in.