A reboot in disguise. Unoriginal and derivative.

Rating: 4/10 (22 December 2015)

JJ Abrams is the Michael Bay for nerds.
All he really does is take old franchises that are beloved by nerds and geeks and recycle/re-hash them with new, younger actors, add in some flashier effects and action scenes and layer on a thin veneer of witty dialogue and a dose of "attitude" and "angst", throw in some old characters for the "nostalgia" factor and package it for Gen-X/Y'ers, Hipsters and Millenials in the guise of something new and creative. Then rinse and repeat that formula again until people stop buying into it.
Reboots are by definition not "new" and not very creative anymore than covering an old song is. But the problem is this movie was not marketed as a reboot. It was sold to us as a completely new sequel, but we were sold a bill of goods. It was a bait and switch -- a deceitful and calculated money grab by studio execs in order to cash in on the devotion and nostalgia of Star Wars fans.
And the most ironic thing about this is that many SW fans are so blinded by their devotion and their love for the franchise that they are willing to overlook every flaw and give every benefit of every doubt to like this movie, despite it crapping on the good faith of its fans. The same thing happened after the release of Episode One: The Phantom Menace and it wasn't until the release of Attack of the Clones that people finally came around to understanding that the prequels were garbage.
Similarly I suspect history will not be kind to The Force Awakens and hopefully neither will it be kind to the likes of charlatans like JJ Abrams (who from here on out will be known as "Jar Jar Abrams") and his ilk.
Don't be fooled. Don't be taken in by these calculated money grabs. Demand something more and something better for your hard earned money.