Better than the prequels...

Rating: 6/10 (2 January 2016)

Just got home from watching Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens​.
The original 3 episodes have always been equated to space-opera. In a time when special effects were not as ground breaking as they are today, writers and directors had to draw you into the movie with their words and great acting. They did not have the crutch of special effects. If you were to watch the original 3 episodes of Star Wars​ and strip away the special effects, you would still have 3 great movies. They could be performed on a stage in front of a live audience and you would still be entertained.
I think everyone from this galaxy to the next galaxy far, far away would agree that the 3 prequels were just not that good. I would equate them to a Lifetime movie or even a movie that was done on the SYFY channel 20 years ago. Today the stuff you would find on SYFY is a lot better. They were high on special effects (which you would expect) but very, very weak in every other way. Again, if you would strip away the special effects you would find that there was not much left.
Now for my opinion of Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens (for those who really give a ****). I had seen the trailers and tried really hard to avoid hearing any spoilers before going to see the movie. A tough thing to do when every other post Facebook is about it. If I was to change the name of the movie from Star Wars to something else like "Space Battles" (forgive me, it's midnight and not a lot is coming to mind) and strip away all the returning characters and replace them with some unknown actors then I would say that the movie was entertaining. Great special effects, decent dialog, good acting, a movie that was attempting to be a Star Wars movie but was far from it. But it was a Star Wars movie. At times it felt like it was more of a comedy. I'm waiting to hear if it would get nominated for Best Comedy on the big screen. There were ways to many characters cracking jokes. Then for some reason it seemed like they, the writers/director needed to spell out everything about the various characters. What happened to having the audience discover things in the story as you went along. Within the first half of the movie I was already told whom was related to whom and why this person decided to go down this path. The voice of the main antagonist was just horrible and at times a bit difficult to understand. It sounded like one of those voice synthesizers you would have as a kid. Actually I think I have an app that does a better job (SPOILER) Then there is the issue of a certain person being isolated from family for many, many years but within hours of being captured discovers and uses powers. REALLY!!! Now there was one semi- surprise. One could actually predict it would happen as the moment got closer.
Now I'm sure I could go on and on but you would have to see it to understand. I'm glad I saw it on the big screen but once is enough for this movie. I hope that they do a better job on the next movie. My advice would be to create an opera then add the effects. If the movie cannot stand on it's own without the effects then it's not worthy to be a Star Wars movie.