Well done JJ Abrams

Rating: 6/10 (24 December 2015)

What an undeniably difficult task to direct this film. You need to appease a loyal and vocal fan base, appeal to a new audience and stamp your own mark on the biggest franchise in cinema history. I think overall JJ Abrams was successful to a large extent but also failed to take the risks that made the original trilogy so special.
It is truly a wonderful experience to see this film, however, it is awfully familiar. It is no doubt the product of a think tank exercise, taking the most successful elements from the previous films and rehashing them in a new package. Not that this is a bad thing... Those elements work and work well. Further, other elements seemed to have been pulled from films like Harry Potter, Tomb Raider and Hunger Games to name just a few with similar effect. It is a collage of epic cinema and is very successful to that end.
The screenplay is watertight in structure given the huge amount of information they needed to portray, the dialogue reasonable (bar a few cringe worthy lines), the scenes memorable and it's remarkable how much they were able to fit into a 135 minute film. The action is strong, but at times a bit overdone and long and for true Star Wars fans the deep philosophy lacking for the most part. The performances again are strong across the board after a somewhat shaky first act, though this may have been me trying to adjust to the new faces in the Star Wars universe. On the universe itself, Abrams did a wonderful job making it feel how it should.
Technically it's very well made. It brings a modern take to the series without compromising its integrity. For example swipe cuts are prominent, yet many scenes begin with extreme close ups to close up to mid shot to long shot as opposed to the reverse in the original trilogy. Little things like that make it more familiar to a modern audience but don't bastardize it for everyone else.
Without giving anything away, I really did enjoy this film, but more over I think the cast and crew did an admirable job in a very difficult situation. Definitely worthwhile, 6 out of 10 is extremely fair for its lack of originality. Well done JJ Abrams, hopefully episode VIII brings many more new concepts to the table, I truly can't wait.