Too close to the original

Rating: 7/10 (25 January 2016)

Don't get me wrong: Ep VII is nothing like the soul-less, computer-game-cut-scene-esque mess that were the prequels. But it ain't no "Empire" either - I'd go as far as saying that even "Jedi" was a better, more original and ultimately more interesting movie.
Before I get to my gripes, here's what Ep VII did right:

Look and feel - You can definitely tell that this film used real locations, real props and doesn't rely entirely on CGI-sequences or actors walking around a small green-screen-box. The landscape-shots are quite beautiful, at times even breathtaking - as well they should be in a Star Wars movie.

Casting: The actors did a fine job with their roles and seemed like they were thoroughly enjoying themselves. Just like he proved in ST, JJ Abrams really knows how to assemble a great cast.

Special effects: I'm not sure how much they did with computers and how much model-work (if any) was utilized. But the FX-sequences simply work. Things have "weight" and feel real. At no time was I zoning out during big FX-shots like I did with the prequels.

No connection to the prequels: Well, this one was a no-brainer. Had JJ Abrams decided to have the plot revolve about Jar-Jar's son, he probably would've been fired on the first day of production. But also there's no mention of silly Midichlorians or any of the other nonsense Lucas introduced in the prequels.

-No over-choreographed, drawn-out lightsaber battles. In fact: No overuse of lightsabers, period. When they finally make a longer appearance, it feels like the movie "earned" that sequence. Unlike with the prequels, where people took out their lightsabers in every other scene.
OK, but here are my problems with the film, and most of them are down to what already bothered me with Abrams' ST-films.
Story.
So, let's see.. the Empire has been destroyed for decades, but somehow they're still in charge of... something? And there's a "Resistance" which opposes them, and that resistance is pretty much indistinguishable from what used to be the Rebel Alliance in IV-VI. But how? Shouldn't the Rebels be the establishment now? If anything, the First Order should be called "Resistance", since they are now the insurgents, fighting against the "government".
But the big one is this: VII follows the story of IV so closely, it's not even funny. I went into the film having avoided spoilers and plot discussions, and I could pretty much predict almost all the major scenes and "twists" well before they happened.
Even the characters and their roles in the story aren't *really* all that original. Rey is pretty much a substitute for young Luke, Poe is Han Solo, while Han himself fills the Obi Wan role from Ep IV (wise old mentor). Plus: Whole sequences are simply re-tellings of IV's story. We have Rey meeting the droid carrying secret information, we have a "rescue an ally on an evil base"-sequence, we have the "space-battle to destroy the evil base", we have the "old mentor dies in front of the young hero"-scene, etc. Oh, and yes: Why they felt the need to include yet *another* Death Star is beyond me. Not only does it make *no* sense within the story (how would a group like the First Order be able to construct such a monstrosity?), but the planet-destroying space-station is also getting to be a tired old cliché in SW. Heck, even "Jedi" was pushing it with the Death Star MK II.
And it would've been pretty easy to avoid a lot of this criticism: Scratch the new Death Star and include a 15 minute sequence which explains the rise of the First Order and establishes the inner workings of the New Republic. Make it a pre-credit sequence or a prologue - heck, you could probably make an entire movie about all this, set 10 years before the events of VII. I'm not saying they should've made a political SW-film, but we as the viewer need to know who does what and why so that we can care about the bigger picture. That's what Ep IV did so brilliantly with its opening Star Destroyer-attack-sequence: Without saying anything, it established the Empire and the Rebels and told us instantly why we should hate the Empire and root for the Rebels.
Overall however, I was mildly surprised at how VII managed to bring back *some* of the old SW-magic, but I guess when you follow the awful prequels, it's pretty easy to look good in comparison. I do recommend the film, but for old SW-fans like myself, who've seen the originals in the theater, it probably still won't be *quite* good enough.
7/10