ripped the heart out of Star Wars

Rating: 1/10 (27 December 2015)

I was so excited to see this but my heart sank as soon as it started.
The premise is Luke has run and hid somewhere. The galaxy is in disarray, humans and non-humans are dying in their millions and he apparently doesn't care at all. He's left his friends/family and gone off to pout and be selfish. And so apparently the Rebell...oops Resistance is looking for him, although if he's become that big of a baby over the last 3 decades I can't think why they'd bother.
Forums debate why he ran off ie bad guy must have been really bad etc, but seriously who cares? We're talking about someone who faced Emperor Palpatine all alone at 23 and now he's left, all due to a really unconvincing bad guy. But more about Darth Cry-Baby later.
The whole point of being a hero is you don't just run off. EVER.
Han is a deadbeat dad who has abandoned his family too...very not-heroic from my usually favourite character. Abrams/Disney have turned him from lovable rogue to mid-life crisis guy. In the books (that Disney have decided are non-cannon) he's a leader,devoted father, grandfather and husband, but he retains his sarcastic wit and all the other elements that made him such a likable character. In this alternate reality (because that's all it could possibly be - it sure isn't Star Wars) according to the latest book, he basically became an intergalactic NASCAR driver and when everything went a bit wobbly he left Leia just as fast as Luke did.
Now let's get to Leia. She's not a Jedi or a member of the government, she's leading a Rebellion...again. It's like they couldn't even be bothered picking up after ROTJ they had to go back to before ANH.
In addition the new female lead is not only instantly great at absolutely everything she doesn't need any help from anyone, and I like independent female role models but we do all need help sometimes. I always really admired Leia because I thought she was independent and strong but I feel like Abrams/Disney have now cast her in a really bad light, not only is she apparently such a bad wife/mother that everyone leaves her but in her younger days she asked for help...and let Luke hold her hand...and let Han rescue her from Hoth. What was she thinking? How very un-PC of her.
The new villain is ridiculous, even his hostages make fun of him. No one ever made jokes at Vader. It's like even Abrams can't take him seriously. And then he throws tantrums like a child.
Lastly this movie makes the previous 3 and particularly ROTJ pointless. How can you watch that movie now and be remotely happy at the end? The victory made no difference, it would be better if they hadn't won at all and had all just died. The war just keeps going. None of our 3 heroes who got to even be a little bit happy. I always thought the 3 of them really loved each other (remember the Emperor's line to Luke about his faith in his friends being his weakness) but apparently not. And before everyone gets up in arms saying 'well that's how life goes' no it isn't, lots of couples/families survive tough times and are the stronger for it and secondly this is Star Wars, not Days of Our Lives, there are other ways to introduce conflict without completely destroying the whole back story of the characters we all loved so much. Such lazy writing in this movie, as other people have said it's just everywhere.
Looking back it seems like no main character in Star Wars ever gets a happy life, think about it, can you now name one main character (not the droids) that got to go on and have a decent life? They all either die young (usually murdered) or end up all alone on some forsaken planet...and then dead. I can get that from a midday movie, I don't want it in Star Wars.
This movie made me really sad and I can't work out why in an attempt to 'pass the torch' they had to destroy the old characters and the franchise.
I read an interview where Abrams said the character of Han had no point, but I feel he's the one that's missing the point, Han was the 'every man' through him we experience much of the movie, he's not a politician or a jedi he's just an average guy trying to get through life...but that's gone too now.
Movies just aren't about special effects they're about stories - if you take all the explosions and spaceships out of this you have a very hollow story. This movie will be forgotten in the not-so distant future, it will not be a classic and Disney will probably remake it every 10 years or so, just like Spiderman etc so they can sell toys.
I really can't see how anyone thought this was good but can only assume they got distracted by the flashy effects/characters or that professional reviewers have been paid for good reviews. They're used to the Avengers/Transformers/Jurassic Park format which has little or no substance. The Finn character is a bad stereotype and nothing more - he adds nothing to the story, if you killed him nothing would change, like I said it's not like Rey needs any help from anyone (including Jedi training because she can already do that too). It even seems like John Williams wasn't inspired by it because I can't remember the score,no twin suns or duel of the fates...just nothing.
If you are a Star Wars fan do not go and see this - it will destroy the story and characters for you. They ripped the heart out of the franchise and stomped all over it (and us).
Don't give Disney your money. BOYCOTT EPISODE 8