Paint by numbers

Rating: 8/10 (25 February 2016)

This is not a detailed review. While I liked the movie enough to give it an 8, it felt as if Lawrence Kasdan made a checklist of everything that worked in the original trilogy and made certain to include them. Character on a desert planet desiring something more than the same old, same old--check. Cute robot carrying vital information--check. Amoral, charming character seeing the light and doing the right thing in the end--divided into two characters--one charming, the other finally deciding to go for the light--check.
It recaptured some of the mythic feel that was lacking in the prequels, but it was not organic and flowing. It was TOO planned, too derivative. Fortunately, the source material was worth copying, so while it was paint by the numbers, it still turned out to be a fairly attractive work of art.
However, I could do without a villain with the emotional maturity of a spoiled brat. That's what threw me out of the prequels, and it irritated me in this film as well. Darth had a cool command, which made him dangerous; Ren, not so much, although, admittedly, his unpredictably made him a better character than emo Anakin.