The worst Star Wars so far, story wise

Rating: 6/10 (16 December 2015)

The Force Awakens is a lazy mess. It's a rehash of mostly the first film and parts of the next two. Absolutely riddled with plot holes.
Kylo Ren - this is one seriously weak and confusing character. I get they are trying to show shades of Anakin's petulance in him. That he idolises Vader. But let's think for a moment. Vader was long dead before Kylo was born. Vader gave up his life to stop the Empire and redeemed himself. Anakin became a force ghost. Anakin wanted to control the galaxy to enforce peace, he really wasn't interested in the Death Star or annihilating planets. He honestly thought he was the good guy. For some unknown reason, Kylo idolises a Vader that never existed and was never redeemed. Finish what you started? What does he mean by this? Why would Kylo idolise a grandfather he never knew over a mother, father and uncle he did? Why doesn't force ghost Anakin appear to him at some point and tell him he's on the wrong path? This character is so weak that they have him kill his father in a cheap, predictable turn just to try to give him some depth. Shameless. Kylo also talks about being pulled to the light - this is something new in Star Wars canon. The light side has no pull - it requires discipline and sacrifice. The dark side has a pull because it is seductive. Just bad writing. And why is he named Ben? Han and Leia have no emotional connection with Kenobi.
Finn - maybe it will be explained in the sequels, but this is another character who makes no sense. Either the Empire/First Order utilise some strong behaviour/mind control on their troops and officers, or these are all just really evil people who have no problem massacring villages and blowing up planets. The fact that Finn appears to exercise free will suggests that it has to be the latter, which opens up all sorts of problems and questions. Stormtroopers by the way have learned how to shoot finally. And the Star Wars blasters all now pack a punch and throw people back on impact - odd considering they are meant to be piercing lasers. I am also uncomfortable with the deliberate pushing of the mixed race couple we will no doubt see in the next two films. Considering the background of the director, it gives fodder, perhaps justifiably so, for so called "racists" to complain (ie. people of European origin free of self loathing who object to being told their race and culture needs to be bred out). It wasn't necessary for the story for these two to become a couple, or for Finn to be black. But you can't even please the left, who have called Finn's antics "racist" or conforming to black stereotypes, like the "sass" and over the top enthusiasm/aggression. My chief problem is where did he learn this behaviour from? He was taken from birth and raised as a Stormtrooper - was his Stormtrooper commander Will Smith? I don't blame the actor for any of this. He's just doing what JJ told him to do.
Rey - probably the worst offender of all, character wise. The embodiment of the currently very popular "girls can do everything boys can do, only better, and without any training, practice or experience!" trope. Rey appears directly out of Twitter/Tumblr/SJW fantasy. Despite being all of 100lbs, she fights off multiple thugs and Stormtroopers with ease. She knows Han's ship and technology better than he does, despite never having been on it. And despite having never used one before, she outdoes the main villain in a lightsaber duel and physically overpowers him - not a huge man by any means but certainly above average in size who'd probably have approximately double her strength. Yet he's unable to overpower her from a position of advantage because Hollywood girl physics. Can you imagine Luke in ANH showing up midway through the film and destroying Vader in a lightsaber battle? This is way stupider, but we accept it because girlpower I guess.
Poe - probably the only of the new characters with not many flaws - except his claim about being thrown clear of the explosion. It's not like there wasn't a tonne of visibility in the desert there, and his exposed body baking until sundown? Sounds ridiculous. If he said he jettisoned as the crashed ship was coming down that would be more believable.
Leia and Luke - Leia for some reason has none of the force power Luke said she'd learn to use in time. Luke stays on his serene temple planet watching the ocean while his sister and the entire rebellion/resistance is in mortal danger and Han is being killed. Okay? And what happened to the flesh on Luke's mechanical hand?
Worse than the the characters though is the plot. This is JJ "teleport to Klingon" Abrahms we're talking about here.
So the new death star is a planet that somehow moves from solar system to solar system (I guess?) and charges itself by sucking the sun dry, somehow storing that energy on a planet billions of times smaller, and then firing it out through space where it fragments off magically taking out multiple planets at once. Whose idea was this? This is a thousand times more stupid and offensive to the laws of physics than anything in previous films. Oh yeah, apparently you can hyperspace into a planet's atmosphere and not burn up too.
I think I'm just about done for now. There will be many plot hole lists to come.
Was it entertaining? About as entertaining as the prequels, but the story arc is kind of important and if this was the best they could come up with Lucas should come out of retirement and do the next two. If they'd just gone with the EU material it would have been a massive improvement.