Star Flaws

Rating: 5/10 (19 December 2015)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens only put the franchise to sleep for me. It was a shortcoming on Disney's behalf that lacked character development, with a plot that alienated older fans from the old story and forced us into accepting the new far too abruptly. It was on par, or maybe slightly worse that the prequels.
Because that's what Disney wanted this to be, a pass of the baton, a cutting of ties with all things George Lucas. It is unmistakably a moneygrab that tries faintly to cover itself up. However, the film makes an exceedingly good start, although it does flash back unoriginally to the opening on Tatooine for most fans from A New Hope. Luckily, Jakku seems interesting, atmospheric and organic enough to captivate a maturer audience initially - but not for long. From there, it mostly goes down hill, each scene is way too fast paced, there is no natural progression and the death of a certain lead character does feel tremendously premature as a result. This is all worsened with next to no meaningful dialogue to add emphasis to the throughout the film, no teary eyed swansongs, nothing - it does not do justice to one of the strongest characters in the franchise.
Rey seems to be the strongest character next to Han, meanwhile Finn is a mostly weak character that feels wholeheartedly incongruous and an anchor to Rey. It seems as though most of the newer actors never got past the excitement of filming for a Star Wars movie and let their natural acting be lost as a result. We have so many unnecessary throwbacks that just scream Disney wanting to cash in on old tricks, when coming to Star Wars I wanted imaginative and original, not dry and repackaged. Lucas himself subtly agrees saying "it's something the fans would enjoy" this is a weak start to what I hope can be redeemed.
7.3/10