Not a J J Abrams movie.

Rating: 4/10 (22 December 2015)

I wish I'd never seen any of the Star Wars movies, so that I could have watched The Force Awakens with a fresh eye and no Star Wars expectations. Alas, that wasn't the case. Given the director (I'm a big fan of Lost and Star Trek), as well as the hype and glowing reviews appearing everywhere, I could not help but expect something decent, despite my better judgment.
What I watched was definitely a Star Wars movie and I thoroughly enjoyed being back in the galaxy and catch up with old friends. I even enjoyed meeting the new heroes, especially BB8, which I fail to understand why some people hated. As a stand alone movie, you could say it's alright, though character development is hardly perfect, and the cartoonish villains made the whole movie simply ridiculous. But it's still a good movie, for youngsters.
The real Star Wars fans (not the fanatics who get picky about just anything) I'm sure were left quite unfulfilled by this new addition to the canon. Even if you hated the prequels - which I didn't - you can never ignore the richness they brought to the story and its background, and to go back to doing what amounts to just an action movie, means going backwards. It's sorta like the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie; too plain compared to the previous ones.
I understand perfectly why this happened; because of all the hate and the criticism of the prequels, Disney wanted to do a facsimile of A New Hope, and that's exactly what they ended up with. Only, while time has made that movie a classic, The Force Awakens falls utterly short of that aspiration, despite the warm reception and great superficial reviews that are drowning out the more professional and unbiased ones. It's like there's a conspiracy out there to make this movie an instant hit and it seems to be working.
Personally, I am sure that had Abrams not given into Disney's demands of giving the multitudes exactly what they liked from the previous movies but none of what they hated, he would have made a better movie; one that like the Star Trek reboot, would have had heart and soul. And I am sad I'll never get to see that movie.
I am inclined to rate this movie 1/10 just to even out the unfair high score it's getting from people, but instead I will go for 4/10. I hope the sequel will be better and not done by Abrams, who I like too much to see him compromise on his vision and talent in this manner.