Beautiful crafted shell, hollow movie.

Rating: 7/10 (23 December 2015)

I've researched the "making of" of the first trilogy, episodes IV to VI. Those were turbulent times. My conclusion about that is that George Lucas had a big heart, full of ideas, but lacked the ability to properly portray them. That period was packed full of changes to the script recommended by his friends, coworkers and professionals of the movie business. He had years to prepare and craft his final work. His powerful, raw and creative ideas were shaped by the input and help of innumerous professionals who assisted in tailoring and shape the movies we love so much. It was the love of one man portrayed with the help of many, and it was improved for it. Impressive core, with a beautiful and crafted shell.
Then, George Lucas became famous, proud, and rich. So much that he acquired all creative and producing rights to the episodes I to III trilogy. He had no need to follow instructions and shape his ideas according to other professionals. He still had his raw and creative ideas, but lacked the knowledge and input of so many others who could have helped make his story achieve its full potentials. He couldn't go wrong, could he? Not the "creator of Star Wars", even through his original work had so much from others. So, we get episodes I to III: original and full of creative ideas, but who weren't as prepared and constructed as the previous trilogy was. No people to tell him he used too much CGI. No friends to tell him to improve on certain areas. No professionals who helped him shape it. And that is why we got those raw display of heart, with so many good ideas, but which failed as good movies. Beautiful core, but with a poorly shaped and disorganized shell. Things go wrong. Then comes the new trilogy. Disney acquired it and decided to profit on it as fast as possible. No time to properly prepare it. Gone was the original heart and soul of the trilogy, and George Lucas input was discarded. His original ideas, gone. The Star Wars expanded universe, gone. No heart left. The burden is so heavy and expectations are so high, they contact one of the best movie directors of our age. His responsibilities are so great that he has to make a PERFECT STAR WARS MOVIE. He plays safe. The studio plays safe. They cannot have another bad movie. People loved the original trilogy, and hated the new one, so let us give them what they want. Blend episodes IV to VI, process them in a fruit blender, filter it for all its good and "star wars ideas", add what you think the audience wants, keep it in a 2 hour summer blockbuster packaged, and sell it. All perfectly tailored and processed by a top cast of professionals in their prime, who were meant not to make a movie, but a Star Wars movie. And there is a big difference there. But gone was the creativity, originality, magic and art that we expected. The lore gets destroyed. The universe story barely moves forward. The plot is recycled, and we got another similar plot to previous movies. The characters are paper thin, and only created to look nice and fit the requirements for the story to move forward and repeat itself, without barely a moment left for them to grow and acquire importance. So many scenes are repeated from the first trilogy just because they were expected to be there. So many moments repeated for the desired effect, but which sound and look hollow because they weren't a consequence of the plot, but a cheap attempt at repeating previous successes. No core at all, no heart at all. Just a "perfect" designed "Star Wars" shell to a hollow movie.
Yes, it is a good "Star Wars movie", because it recycled everything good about the previous ones. But it is not a good movie, and unlike every single previous one from the series, it adds nothing new. Unlike even the somewhat bad prequel trilogy, that actually added anything story wise to the universe lore, this one adds nothing. Absolutely nothing. And it is a shame, and it just isn't worse than Episode I because that movie was god damn awful.