Really wanted to like this movie...But only "awakened" disappointment

Rating: 4/10 (27 December 2015)

First of all I went into watching this film with great expectations. Maybe it was all the media hype forced down our throats, or perhaps because it had almost been a decade since the last Star Wars movie. Toward the end of this movie I was telling myself "Really?" "This is the best that Disney can do with the franchise?". Maybe George Lucas fell short with some details and direction of the prequels but at least those movies felt original yet maintained within the same story world as the first trilogy. TFA felt like a recycled movie that tried way too hard to be like episode 4, and made by people who didn't really care about the franchise.
Now, there are some things I did like a lot, but some of those points even fell short. For example, I loved how we finally got to see the inner-workings of the stormtroopers. It made them feel more relatable and not just some mindless soldiers with horrible aiming. The character, Finn, gave us a human struggle that made him seem like a believable character. Unfortunately, even this, like the rest of the movie, was overdone to a point that it becomes almost annoying. From the first time you see him as a soldier he is so obvious and sticks out like a sore thumb. Also, he the only soldier highlighted or even shown without a helmet. It's as if he is the only storm trooper with any emotion or feelings. I wanted to see some back story, some sort of framework with maybe a few supporting storm trooper characters around him to make him feel more real.
Another point that I liked was the backgrounds and landscape settings, especially in the desert scenes. They looked amazing even beautiful, but most of all it looked real and felt like these places could really exist. I really liked how it showed old beaten up crashed destroyers and other relics from the original trilogy. Those details gave the backdrop depth and made the settings believable with some mystery hidden underneath. Although, these seemed almost un-noticed in some scenes because of all the fast-paced action in the forefront. The movie would have benefited more with some slowed-down wide shots of the landscapes, like what Peter Jackson did in LOTR.
I could go into each character and their lack of development, but I don't think I could do so effectively without giving away spoilers. Let's just say that with each character you still felt like you didn't even know them at the end of the movie. The way that they all just coincidentally ran into each other felt like episode 1 all over again. The story went way to fast for you to get a chance to know any character, and the characters we already knew were just thrown in there to provide a false sense of continuity between this movie and the old ones. JJ Abrams tried really hard to capture the realism of the original trilogy without over-using CGI like Lucas did in the prequels. But in the end, that only made it look outdated. We didn't need all of those random shots of alien creatures that were put there to show that "Hey we didn't just throw in a bunch of CGI creatures, we actually made them like in the first three movies". I wanted the ones that we were already used to, instead of a slew of new creatures that seemed generic and didn't stand out at all. Honestly, the only character that seemed real was Chewbacca, and thank god because I don't even know how one could mess him up. There was one scene in particular where he showed true emotion, and actually seemed more real and important than he did in the originals. I'm not even going to go far into the travesties of the antagonists in the film. From the whining of Kylo Ren to unrealistic leadership of "Supreme Leader Snoke". I don't even remember the name of the chromed-out female storm trooper who literally did nothing in the movie in terms of action.
Action....Since I'm on that topic now that was perhaps the most disappointing. the fight choreography is what made the prequels actually very entertaining at times, especially in the revenge of the sith. Admittedly, the first three movies' lightsaber duels were kind of boring, but eventually did get better with each installment. I mean come on, if you love watching old kenobi and vader duel in the first movie then I feel really bad for you. This movie did absolutely nothing cool, new, or special when it came to the duels. I honestly don't remember anything that stood out in any of the few that did happen. I wanted high- flying maneuvers and unrealistic techniques, but sadly we were given slowed-down, overly exaggerated fight scenes that are extremely unremarkable.
Like I said, I really wanted to like this movie, but just didn't. I have a lot of friends (hardcore star wars fans) that will say anything they can to make you believe this movie is great but makes me suspicious of why they would do that. Maybe Disney is paying them off, but I doubt it. They just refuse to accept that this movie fell short and are simply lying to themselves. Maybe this movie will be better upon a second viewing, and maybe I am overly critical and analyzed minor details too much but in the end I feel duped and wish people cared more who made this film.