It wasn't that bad

Rating: 7/10 (25 January 2016)

So I packed my husband into the theatre and ourselves and nine other people settled in to watch Star Wars, The Force Awakens. Okay, I have to admit, I wasn't thrilled with the opening scrawl that seemed written by a high school drama club but, believe it or not, things improved from there. After reading all the spoilers about the film, which I truly don't care about, I wasn't expecting much from this, the seventh outing of this franchise. To be honest, it wasn't that bad.
The newcomers Rey and Finn were great. They were well written (as well written as anyone's been in this series) and well acted. Poe, the fighter pilot that was thrown from his ship minus his jacket (explain that one to me) seemed to be little more than a role designed for an action figure as did the rather pointless Phasma. They really didn't need names. Darth Wannabe, who's name I forgot, actually wasn't bad. I liked his confusion. Han Solo and General Leia did what they could with what they were given. BB8, the robot companion of the fighter pilot out acted the previously mentioned Phasma and provided some comic relief.
Now for the bad. The spaceships looked tiny, and I don't mean tiny compared to the vastness of space I mean tiny. The tie fighters and x-wings looked good as full-sized props next to actors but in the battle scenes they looked like dinky toys. Same with the Millennium Falcon and the Star Destroyers. Nothing looked big enough for a human to fit into. The sense of scale was amiss. I don't know if the camera's were set to Tilt-shift or if it was just really, really bad modelling but everything just looked small. I felt like I was watching a toy commercial on a cell phone.
I was also disappointed that in the 30-years since the last movie, technology has pretty much stood still in this fantasy universe. The rebel fleet has gone from huge capital ships, x-wings, a- wings, b-wings and y-wings to about 12 x-wings. Remember, this is the side that won the war. Meanwhile, the Empire (which is now the Order-66 or something) has gone from giant star destroyers, super-star destroyers, tie fighters, bombers, interceptors to what look like sub- compact star destroyers and tie fighters. the only thing they did that was slightly different was they made a Death Star but this time it was a planet made into a Death Star (That's no space station, that's a moon?). It was cool enough but nothing we haven't seen before.
Actually, that's my biggest complaint. There was so little that we hadn't seen before. Stormtroopers still wear the worst armour in the universe (why do they even bother with that stuff?), everyone still flies the same four spaceships, and the plot is just a rehash of the third movie which was a rehash of the first and second. I could nitpick details but why bother. This is a space fantasy movie and to enjoy it means you don't think about it too critically. It whiles away the time on a dreary winter day and it shouldn't have to do much more than that. In the next outing, Star Wars 8, Order-66 Strikes Back, I just hope we see a little more variety and maybe a better sense of scale.
On the plus side, the otherwise useless 3-d did provide two bits of fun. One was when one of the smallish Star Destroyers (Star Denters?) hangs in front of the audience. The other was when Rey holds out a lightsaber. I was glad I wasn't the only one out of the eleven people in the audience who reached out to take it.