Take A Step Back From Nostalgia & Review Honestly!

Rating: 2/10 (17 December 2015)

Despite my love for Star Wars and my unflinching desire to fall back in love with this universe all over again, having read what i can only describe as 'Love Letters' from some critics it has occurred to me again as it always does, how important it is that real fans voice their opinions rather than critics who run the risk of upsetting the studio that whines & dines them every time a film of this magnitude arrives. Dare they lose their premiere tickets to the next one. The Force Awakens has arrived and whilst it is nice to wallow in nostalgia & remember what it is you loved about this universe in the first place, it is also important to judge a film on it's own merits & not on it's name & status alone. The Empire Magazine film review is an excellent example of one person's love for a franchise blinding them to the fairly obvious. Stating that TFA borrows slight themes from ANH is an understatement of grand proportions but one that is understandable whilst in a darkened theatre but once detached from the experience of the cinema the flaws of this film become evident & much more apparent. In the modern age of online reviews & blogs voicing your real feelings & concerns about a film will have consequences for eventual sequels & spin-offs so fans if you were happy with this film and it's startling lack of originality feel free to keep lining the pockets of the studio that doesn't have to think anymore to make billions, but if you are one of those fans that, like me, have had a huge crushing disappointment please make it known, the future of SW depends on it. To list the inconsistencies, blatant rips from other (better) SW movies & just out & out mind numbing non-sensical plot holes would leave me no room for anything else in this review. The word lazy sadly springs to mind. In almost every scene there is a doppleganger to a previous SW movie from the desert landscapes to the information loaded droid to the father/son love/hate to the planet destroying Death star to the mask wearing voice changing villain & even to the point of recycling old dialogue. I mean if you wanted this you would just pop in the first 3 movies, surely? being a fan doesn't give anyone the right to treat you stupid! JJ Abrahms is a talented director who managed to chisel a fantastic reboot of Star Trek & seemingly had a handle on this kind of material but like every film that has gone before, you are only as good as the story & script and from where i am sitting this is just another, less fun re-telling of ANH with a bigger death star & an older Harrison Ford. If this was a stand alone science fiction movie without the brand, it would just come & go & maybe do low-mild box office. This is what annoys me most, the film makers clearly understood how important this film was to so many people and to treat it with such blatant disrespect as to just churn out a run-of-the-mill retread is just plainly aggravating. So much budget to come up with something so familiar yet so alienating to those that understand what Star Wars stands for as far as Genre Defining Fantasy goes. This pales in comparison and yet i am still in love with the idea of making more of them in the hope that maybe they can re-light the fire again & give todays 5 second attention span kiddies a taste of what it felt like back in 1977 (And i haven't even mentioned the killing of the most or at least one of the most beloved characters in the whole universe, but being that he was meant to be knocked off in ROTJ i will give that one a pass) Despite all it's shortcomings and there are many, TFA has it's bright spots most notably the sound & visuals which are as impressive as you would expect, the new additions to the cast do the best they can with the tired formula, the idea of a turn coat stormtrooper was at least something new added to the mix and sparks still fly when Leia & Han share screen time, it's just a shame that they decided to rely too much on themes heavily apparent in previous SW films. The new villain is one of the biggest problems to say the least, again Empire's review has stated that this is the greatest villain in SW lore, but anybody that believes that is clearly living in a world of coke & happy pills, it's true to say he is clearly torn, but it's more the Team Edward, team Jacob kind of torn than anything suited to a SW movie. A clearer and more fleshed out back story to the missing 30 years would have been in the film makers best interest here instead of all the laser blasting and flat jokes (There's a reason most people love 'Empire Strikes Back' the best, it's called story!) but maybe this is something they will concede too in the next instalment. In the end TFA will join Indiana Jones, The Hobbit & even it's own prequels as being a good idea in theory but sadly lacking in substance & originality in practise, a way to indulge your nostalgia without moving the franchises along.
Maybe it's a sign to pass these newer movies along to the next generation & keep the old ones to us, after all these years they still belong to the fans. Fans who i might add are still living in the 'Phantom Menace' stage of denial, you know who you are. What other film could have a bad review that still scores it 8/10? I mean when the best lines of the film are delivered by Chewbacca, you know your in trouble!