Copies form, not substance of the original

Rating: 3/10 (5 January 2016)

I did not like The Force Awakens. Just to be sure where I am coming from, I revere the first three films (4, 5, and 6 in the new ordering, just to be clear). These movies and their message are a constitutive part of me and of how I see the world to this day. I do not know if George Lucas produced a masterpiece somewhat by chance, if he was guided by superior powers, or if he is simply an incredible genius who lost himself in the Hollywood jungle with the subsequent second/first trilogy. Whatever the explanation, the first three movies are, to me, among the greatest stories ever produced.
To be clear, The Force Awakens is very, very good technically. It has spectacular special effects, superb scenarios, a great lightsaber fight, and is, of course, much better than the original three in pace. It gives you no time to think about what you are seeing. Just as you are getting over the last scene the new one springs out at you. I must confess that I was (mostly) under the thrall of this orgy of technical excellence until I came out of the film and my wife stated the she really did not like it.
The more I thought about it the more I agreed. The space dogfights, the scenarios, the flashbacks to the first trilogy, in sum, the super-professional job, cannot hide that this is an empty and soulless movie. It has neither the creativity nor the spirit of the first three. JJ Abrams copies George Lucas in form but totally misses out on the content.
The copied forms are blatant and even tedious once the usual pacing tricks are taken out. Another Death Star with a planet destroying cannon, only this time at interstellar distances. Once again, this technological horror is infiltrated by our heroes. Once again one of them perishes in the attempt. For the third time (fourth if Episode One is considered) fighters must brave its defenses to hit a precise point and blow it all up. You could redo it until The Return of the Jedi, but in The Force Awakens it is just way too little creativity.
Jakku is Tatooine photocopied. The First Order is the Galactic Empire. The Rebel Alliance becomes the Resistance. (The resistance to what? Did they not win and bring back the Republic, which of course gets destroyed again?)
The characters are of course equally copies. Politically correct copies, of course, this is Disney. We have to have a black hero and a woman becomes central character (and I love strong women central characters, like Ripley in Alien), but it all tastes so stale. Rey is the new Luke, apart from the fact that she masters the Force in about five minutes while Luke takes the better part of three movies. Yoda comes back as Maz Kanata. And, of course, Darth Vader is back mask and all. Since we need an "I am your father" moment Darth, oops, Kylo, has to kill Han. I was loving it all as I began to realize that there was nothing new. Nothing even remotely new. When I came out of the movies 35 years ago, I had seen a world where everything was new: the universe, the Jedi, the Force, the lightsabers  this time it was food recycled for the third time.
But worse of all is that the whole message is missing. The first trilogy has a message so powerful it echoes through time: love conquers hatred. It is a story of redemption, of a boy's love for his father that is reciprocated and saves the father, of the relation between the us and everything that surrounds us. What does this new trilogy begin with? A parricide. Worse, a parricide that comes out of nowhere other than the need for a "I am your father, Luke" moment. This an empty soulless movie.
Pure Hollywood. Yuk.