The honest review

Rating: 1/10 (19 December 2015)

With all the hype and buzz surrounding this film, I was a little too excited about rekindling the joys I found in the original trilogy. My expectations were not to match the original films in terms of old characters or nostalgia, but in terms of a good solid story and new characters development. After the opening sequence had finished, you are met with the usual camera panning observation of a capital ship. Things looked good - straight into the action - storm troopers and the main villain land searching for a missing map leading to the elusive Luke Skywalker. This is where we are introduced to the first of our characters, Kylo Ren and Finn. After the battle is over, we find ourselves in the grips of yet another action sequence aboard the ship after Poe is captured. Having eluded the new "First Order" and returned to the planet to retrieve the BB droid, we find ourselves yet again 2 minutes later in another action sequence almost identical to the first.
This is where this review takes a sharp turn to the dark side. The reason the Star Wars films were so successful is because the story took time to develop, and we were slowly introduced to the characters; Luke, Obi Wan, Princess Leia and Han Solo. Each one given the limelight for a certain amount of time over the first hour of A New Hope. The Force Awakens decides that character development can be made in the first 15 mins for all the main characters of this new franchise. It feels rushed and poorly delivered. In addition to the characters feeling fairly hollow was the need to jump in action sequences every 4-5 minutes without fail. Although this film is not unique in it's approach, I can't help but feel I had action sequences rammed down my throat at every opportunity.
With all the hype, it's easy to overlook massive oversights with characters and plot too. The chrome storm trooper who asserts Finn must put his helmet on is all but forgotten 2 minutes afterwards, only to reappear half way through to quickly disable the shields for the mega-death-star-planet. Are we meant to despise this character or care she is there? When the crew arrive on the leafy forest planet, we are introduced to yet another character. The small yellow goblin character felt like a Yoda stand-in, which is quickly brushed over and given little to no explanation - which is (you guessed it) interrupted by another action sequence. Why bother introducing half of these characters and putting any emphasis on them if they are gone within 3 minutes of meeting them?
I could gloss over the smaller characters irrelevance if the villain had been stronger. This is where the whole movie falls apart. The original villain (Darth Vadar) burst out to our screen in a New Hope with mystery surrounding him. Within minutes he had broken the neck of a rebellion soldier and made his presence known. With our new villain, he begins as an all powerful Sith lord whos abilities allow him to stop blaster shots and read minds. Half way through he is revealed to be the whiney teenager of Han and Leia - corrupted by the Dark Side. At this point, any mystery has gone, along with the intimidation factor (which is fairly evident in the closing fight of the movie - in which Rey manages to win, despite no training or knowledge of the force). In addition, the main First Order officer was also a weak performance in comparison to the original officers aboard the Star Destroyers. He felt more of an angry Oxford graduate rather than an intimidating Imperial officer. Furthermore, the new emperor looks like something from Lord of the Rings rather than the Star Wars franchise. I understand Andy had to do something, but this character felt shoe-horned in like the rest.
The death of a major character was brushed over within seconds, the music was average throughout (perhaps I feel bias with this opinion - I wanted more of the original soundtrack), the characters we're fairly hollow, many of the scenes had little to no bearing on the overall plot and the plot itself was based around one that has existed since the 70's. The ending was utterly terrible - staring blankly into the eyes of Luke with no dialogue whatsoever.
I am devastated writing this review, as my hopes were very high. I was lead to believe this would be a story like the originals, and a fresh start to the franchise. I feel the reasons this movie has been so highly rated is because it surpasses the huge disappointment of Episode One. However, I hope that in time, others will take one step back and realise what an average movie The Force Awakens is.