The Force awoke briefly and went back to sleep

Rating: 5/10 (30 December 2015)

Watching 'The Force Awakens' was like getting all excited looking forward to Christmas and then tearing the wrapping paper off your presents on Christmas morning to find the same old stuff from last year, instead of the giant lego set of the Millennium Falcon you really wanted. Let's go through all that stuff: Desert landscapes, snowy landscapes, forest landscapes: check. Strange aliens: check. Death Stars: check. Fanatical evil generals wearing weird peaked caps: check.
I could go on but you get the idea: there was very little new or original in this much-hyped, latest instalment of the space saga. In fact nothing I could think of, particularly for those familiar, like me, with the original trilogy.
The saddest part is the dumbing down of the transcendental, quasi- religious plot-element, The Force, which lifted the previous films out of the domain of sterile space battles. The Force was supposedly something that few believed in, let alone were able to experience. It took Skywalker long months and years to even begin to master. Yet here we have the young heroine seemingly being able to call on The Force at will, just like that, with no apparent experience, knowledge or training.
What more could I expect for something coming out of the Evil Republic of Hollywood, whose sole aim is to churn out product which ticks all the progressive boxes and maximise profits for the huge shadowy mega-corporations behind it all?