one word sums it up, plagiarism

Rating: 1/10 (13 April 2018)

It's like they just took the story of Episode IV, tweaked it in places, moved a couple of bits around and stuck in bits from the rest of the Original and Prequel series, then thought 'they'll never know'
Well, we did.
Let's start from the beginning.
Rey is abandoned on a desert planet as a slave and grows up making a living as a junk dealer.
Luke was left with his aunt and uncle on a desert planet (not the same planet but very similar) and made to do similarly menial work and deal with junk dealing Jawa's.
And the slave thing is just a throw-back to Anakin Skywalker in Episode I, then add in that Anakin was owned by the junk dealer Watto.
Then an old man on the same planet gives the Resistance pilot (Poe) a segment of a map to Luke Skywalker; thanks to him the First Order appear on the planet and through some space battles a First Order defector (Finn) encounters Rey who helps her to escape the planet aboard the Millennium Falcon.
Here they also meet Han Solo and Chewbacca.
Firstly 'Resistance' is a title given to those who fight AGAINST the people in power, yet they fight FOR the people in power.
Secondly the name 'First Order' is stupid and makes no sense.
The old man, Poe and Finn are basically the equivalent of Obi-Wan in this story, as each fulfil roles Obi-Wan had played with Luke.
Han, Rey and co then travel to find a weird alien creature in a bar of aliens whereupon the First Order attacks and the Resistance save them.
I'm reminded of the cantina scene on Tatooine (only without the music) and as for the alien creature it might as well be called Yoda.
Rey however is captured by the First Order (led by Kylo Ren) and is taken to the First Orders super weapon where Rey discovers her connection to the Force and begins experimenting with her abilities.
Meanwhile the First Order use their super weapon to destroy the New Republic's governing worlds, and Kylo talks about Rey with his master Snoke.
Just like Luke when he started discovering his connection to the Force and began training with Obi-Wan, the only difference being that Rey has no one to help her. Then you get the Jedi Mind Trick on the Storm Trooper, a force power that Obi-Wan had used on Storm Troopers in Episode IV.
Then there's the First Orders super weapon; it's basically a Death Star built inside a planet, but for what purpose? And the test firing, all I can say is Alderaan.
A quick look at the new bad guy 'Kylo Ren' - a boy trained as a Jedi who turned to the dark side and wears a black suit with a mask that changes his voice (too many similarities to Darth Vader to be comfortable, and they really rub it in when he 'prays' to Vader's mangled helmet. At least Darth Vader's mask had a point to it)
And then there's his master Snoke, a weird man with a messed up face who appears as a giant hologram - just as Darth Sideous appeared to Darth Vader in Episode IV.
Han, Chewbacca and Finn launch a rescue mission to save Rey while the Resistance plan to destroy the super weapon.
Han, Chewbacca and Finn infiltrate the super weapon and, while searching for Rey, they encounter Captain Phasma and use her to access the computer and dump her down a garbage chute.
Basically Captain Phasma here plays the role of R2-D2 when he accessed the Death Star computer to find Princess Leia in Episode IV, then the garbage chute is just an unnecessary throw-back to the same film.
What's the point of Captain Phasma anyway? A Storm Trooper in a full silver suit whose only role is walking around and talking?
Han and Chewbcca then lay charges to destroy the shield generator for the Resistance to attack the super weapon.
Where did they get that idea I wonder, oh wait that's how they destroyed the second Death Star in Episode VI.
As they finish planting the bombs Han faces Kylo and reveals he is his father, then Kylo kills him.
It's Episode V in reverse. And Han's death isn't that much of a shock when you think about it, they killed off Obi-Wan in Episode IV, and they couldn't kill off one of the new characters.
Just a side note on these new characters, why do they all have one syllable names? Poe, Finn, Rey. Yes there's Kylo Ren, but his real name is Ben.
Rey fights Kylo in the forest, however the fight is ended suddenly with no victor when they are separated by an earthquake.
It's basically a rehash of Episode V when Luke fights Darth Vader on cloud city and drops through a filter to escape, except here no one loses a hand.
Chewbacca then detonates the bombs and destroyed the shield allowing the Resistance to attack the generator by flying inside and destroying vital components before escaping.
It's the second Death Star repeated almost exactly, except the Millennium Falcon wasn't the ship flying inside.
Everyone then escapes the super weapon before it explodes and meets back at the Resistances base.
They like the last second escapes don't they? Anakin on the droid control ship in Episode I, Luke on the Death Star in Episode IV, and Luke and Lando in separate instances on the second Death Star in Episode VI.
R2-D2 then 'awakens' and reveals a map from his memory that, with the map segment from the start of the film, shows Luke's exact route across the galaxy.
The film implies that the map R2-D2 had was from the original Death Star in Episode IV, 36 years earlier. If it's that old how does it have Luke's route already plotted on it?
A segment of R2-D2's map however is missing (which is the segment from earlier) how did this get lost, and how did the old man have it?
Rey then uses the completed map to find Luke Skywalker to begin her full training as a Jedi.
Just as Luke went to find Yoda in Episode V, and the map from R2-D2 was essentially the same as ghost Obi-Wan telling Luke to go to Dagobah.
This film should be renamed 'The Farce Awakens'
The actual title makes no sense anyway, The Force Awakens, was it asleep?
After this mass-plagiarism I don't hold out much hope for Episode VIII, not even A New Hope, and definitely wouldn't waste my money on it at the cinema as I had done with this waste of time.