Majestic pastiche bordering on retrospective parody.

Rating: 5/10 (20 December 2015)

No SPOILERS*
JJ Abrams majestically directed a pastiche of Star Wars. There is some cleverness here but though JJ Abrams is a wizard at bending reality with film cuts, and plot holes, the trouble is that Abrams has broken too many rules to pull it off. They stack up like circumstantial evidence that Star Wars is a simulation, rather than "real"- as Han Solo would have us believe. Mythological powers, character's sacrifices, and even the very pacing of the film have all been turned into either frenetic moments, or 'time-stop' moments- breaching a parody during the most important scenes.
There is a believability problem both in the plot, and the mise-en-scene- the total visual experience that makes up each shot. Even the camera angles are 'unbelievable'. In several scenes (too many to mention) there is a mismatch between what we know of each character and their behaviour. Action scenes were too poorly cut or filmed to piece together, leaving an unsatisfactory bewilderment as to how cause and effect was unfolding.The Force mythology is also shaken up with a few plot devices that happen far too quickly to be sensible. Pacing in the film was perhaps the biggest problem, leaving deeper characters undeveloped, and other more simple characters, overdeveloped. Characters run off, alone, to create more narrative suspense in action sequences, but at the expense of 'developing' the friendship between characters. Overall, a new trilogy had need of a longer wind-up to develop the characters in relation to each other, but there's a few disassociated action scenes instead, without significantly advancing the plot.
The model and cgi blend allows 'anything' to be filmed (that we can imagine) but the original films faced many limitations in filming. This is what made it brilliant. Now the only restriction for the making of Star Wars is in the plot and the source material of Star Wars, its mythology, characters, character development, locations, pacing, etc. Upcoming directors and writers, and hopefully Rian Johnson, will harness these creative, filming and technical details, as a guidepost for further development and fan-based acceptance.As clever as JJ Abrams can be for all the movie magic he can achieve, it's far too clever at being completely insensible, and unbelievable.
PROS: Outstanding Visual Effects, Make Up, costumes, and Set pieces,sound engineering, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, and Oscar Isaac. New droid cuteness.