A million voices cried out at once - "Not Disney". They were right.

Rating: 5/10 (21 December 2015)

Remember the joke that did the rounds when we all found out Disney bought the rights? And a million nerds cried out at once! Well it turns out they were right to express their horror. This is no classic at all. In fact I left the cinema thinking "Is that it?". This is a far cry from when I left the cinema after Empire thinking "Wow". Now I appreciate I'm much older if not wiser but isn't a film supposed to wow you?
Spoiler time - The plot feels like they've swept up the old clippings from scripts to the first three movies and patched them together. Yet another death star type weapon, yet more flying into large constructions, dodging pipework etc, yet another bad guy wearing a mask with an overlord above him and yet another droid with secrets entrusted to it. There was very little that was new or fresh. I fully expected a number of references to the past to anchor the film but this was almost ALL anchor and little new. The feeling of deja vu was all encompassing and ultimately one of sadness. A great opportunity to expand a fantastic story has gone begging.
As to the characters - where does Hollywood find it's English actors? Almost all English actors / actresses seem to talk with a terribly posh voice. Daisy Ridley (Rey)is no exception. As an Englishman I can assure the rest of the world that the vast bulk of us do not speak with a plumb in our mouths. John Boyega (Finn) comes across as confused for most of the film which is not an endearing trait. It's not all bad as what was done was done well with the exception of a couple of bits of rather poor cgi. I know cgi was left out as much as possible and I appreciate that. I hate cgi as it makes things cartoon-like and this film is all the better for keeping it to a minimum. All in it's not a bad film but neither is it going to ever live with the likes of the originals.
Disney has a LOT of work to do in the future films already under way to redeem itself. I hope they've started with a much better script that focuses on something new for the next instalment rather than rewarming the left-overs again.
I suspect Harrison Ford will be the happiest member of the cast as he doesn't have to suffer any more of this. The force was not strong with this one!