The Force Reawakens

Rating: 1/10 (22 December 2015)

Over the long wait for Star Wars: the Force Awakens, one question has been omnipresent: would a Star Wars film made without the involvement of series creator George Lucas improve on the controversial prequels? Or would it be what we feared most - not so much a real installment, as a marketing tool for selling action figures and LEGOs? As much as we had hoped otherwise, we now must face the truth: even when making Star Wars movies, Disney will be Disney.
Quite simply, The Force Awakens fails to pass the main test of a good sequel - that it have something to add to the story. While we need not believe that Luke, Han, and Leia simply danced with Ewoks for the rest of their lives, couldn't J.J. Abrams have found a better way to continue the Star Wars saga than to reset its every development so that it could be done all over again? In retelling A New Hope, he has not only created a boring film, but has obliterated the original story: the Empire has completely returned; Han is once again a self-centered rogue, a famous romance is destroyed; and Luke is less than we've ever seen him, a coward hiding from his problems. Thanks, Disney. Now, my kids can think the original Star Wars Trilogy was the tale of a bunch of losers who never defeated an Empire, and was totally superfluous to the overall story arc of the Star Wars saga.
As if it weren't enough that the story is a total rehash, it has a plot hole you could fly a Star Destroyer through: the existence of the map to Luke. Who created it? How did the pieces get scattered in a bunch of wildly different places? None of the characters act as if there's a mystery here; it's as though we're meant to take the map's existence for granted. Or are we supposed to assume that Luke tried to explain his location in a Blues Clues-type fashion, hiding puzzle pieces about the galaxy instead of just telling people?
Throughout the film, Abrams rushes from scene to scene without genuine character development or exposition. How can we care about the main character, Rey, when the only thing she ever expresses any real interest in is being home... when she expresses any emotions at all? Also, the relationship of the two leads is underdeveloped and confined mostly to the realm of comic relief. The pace never slows even to honor the death - and a most un-heroic and unfitting one at that - of a certain major character; there's no eulogy, no funeral; not even a word spoken of it. With everything Abrams once borrowed from Star Trek II, he couldn't take a cue from that film now?
The film has little to contribute to the Star Wars universe. It is set thirty years after Return of the Jedi, but the physical appearance of its world hasn't changed, except for the addition of a spherical droid and a three-bladed lightsaber. It's not just that it's lazy; it's that from an in-universe perspective, it makes no sense that so little innovation has occurred in thirty years when between Episodes III and IV it happened dramatically in a much shorter time. The locations are nearly identical to ones from the Original Trilogy. It's Tatooine; why even bother calling it Jakku? All of it complements the already overwhelming feeling of sameness.
As far as style and craftsmanship are concerned, this is at best a superficial imitation of earlier Star Wars films. The circle transitions are still here, but little else is. The previous films were masterfully crafted works of art. There was thought behind each camera angle. There were interesting set pieces for the lightsaber duels. There was the presence of suspense, as with Vader's first entrance, or the Falcon being pulled into the Death Star. Here, everything is about explosions and lightsaber-waving.
Perhaps the worst part of it all is that Abrams has nothing to say. For a film that has "Force" in the title, there's little actual talk of it. Neither does the film contain any allegory, any philosophy, any moral depth, or one small nugget of wisdom.
There are some positives to the film - namely, far better acting and scriptwriting than the prequels, and more vivid characterizations. Although the script doesn't have the memorable, quotable nature of the Original Trilogy ones, it's laced with plenty of amusing quips. But important though these elements are, they can't save a film from a through-and-through bad story.
Whatever merits The Force Awakens does possess, nothing can change the fact that it is, deep down, disingenuous and false. The best I can say of it is that it has given me a newfound great appreciation for George Lucas' deeply flawed, but heartfelt and genuinely moving prequels, which are the superior of this film in so many respects: story, character development, emotion, depth, artfulness, and world-building. It has highlighted the inescapable genius of his vision for Star Wars, a genius which has no place near Disney's soulless assembly line movie-making. We're sorry, George, for our criticism; everything is forgiven. Because if we've learned anything from The Force Awakens, it's that Star Wars is lost without its creator at the helm.
******************************
Reused Plot Elements:

Empire attacks Rebels in search of plot device containing important information. Character hides plot device in cute droid, before being kidnapped. (IV)

Droid is purchased from scrap dealers by the protagonist, an orphan who lives on a desert planet. (IV)

Main characters escape desert planet in Millennium Falcon, pursued by Storm Troopers, before Falcon is sucked inside larger spacecraft. (IV)

Han Solo is a smuggler who lives for himself, but later realizes the importance of fighting for the common good. When he is first introduced, he becomes involved in a violent confrontation over his debts. (IV)

Leia initially behaves coldly towards Han, but later reveals affection for him. (V)

Main characters enter a cantina in search of transportation. (IV)

Empire kidnaps girl and interrogates her to obtain the plot device, and girl must be rescued. (IV)

Father/son, light/dark conflict, in which a character thinks he can turn his Sith family member back to the light. (VI)

During the mission to rescue the girl, the character who serves as a mentor to the other main characters confronts the villain, a person he used to have a close relationship with years ago, and is killed. (IV)

A planet-shaped superweapon is destroyed by flying into trenches (IV) and disabling a shield generator. (VI)

The protagonist seeks out a Jedi Master living in seclusion on a lonely planet, (V) who hides there because of a failure that allowed the Dark Side to rise to power. (III)

******************************
Reused Characters:

Protagonist who starts out on a desert planet, doesn't know her parents, and (if Luke's monologue in teaser #2 is any clue) has some family relationship to the main villain. (IV-V)

A character who initially refuses to take any side but his own, but develops a moral conscience (Finn). (IV)

A Sith with a red lightsaber and a mask that distorts his voice, who was trained as a Jedi but went to the Dark Side.

A stern-looking imperial officer. (IV)

An unsightly, pale-skinned emperor who gives orders to Sith character and who initially appears as a giant hologram and wears a black cloak.

An armored, masked villain who carries a blaster and whose face is never seen. (V-VI)