Excellent product of Hollywood + Disney + Remake = Terrible movie

Rating: 4/10 (19 December 2015)

*SPOILER WARNING*
I had hoped before going in that I would enjoy Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Not the case. It was rather a disappointment. I get the impression that if Abrams, the director, or any of the writers ever watched the original movies, or researched them, it was in their childhood or at least a decade before this gig. As it turns out, whatever the cause, most of the story directly contradicts Star Wars lore and the constant theme of previous movies and books that every step requires hard work, training, and dedication. You have a former storm trooper who's motivation is either escaping the First Order of helping a random girl he just met.
*
You know, I get a sense that he has a more understandable character than the others. In a sense, he is a truly innocent character. He originally has one purpose: as a clone, he is a storm trooper. This is his identity. He has been extensively trained and conditioned to serve the First Order, the stand in for the Empire. Somehow, he breaks his conditioning and decides to escape, taking a captured resistance pilot with him. Thus far, he makes sense if you forget my comment about his innocence. Up next is where is does not. After escaping, his only purpose is to impress the girl. What girl? Doesn't matter. She has something to do with the droid that has information about Luke Skywalker. His actions from this point on indicate that he is either an innocent, child-like person, or a selfish guy who's just running away from the First Order - or he's just schizophrenic. Don't read too deeply into it. It's not worth it.
*
There are elements of a reboot, of an homage, of an original story. The original story, unfortunately, was only original in Episode IV. The reboot, alas, is only going to happen if Episode VIII is much better than Episode VII, which is literally outshone by every Star Wars movie previous to it. The homage is real, but not really something I can enjoy with the rest of the movie's faults.
This isn't Star Wars. I'll leave you to determine what it is, but it leaves something of a sick feeling in my stomach - expectation not met or even humored has a way of doing that.