Not a true star wars movie

Rating: 6/10 (22 December 2015)

My wife and I have been fans of the star wars films since we were kids. We loved the originals, didn't mind the prequels...and we both thought that this movie was worse than the prequels. The movie felt rushed and character development was very poor. The movie started out well with Jakku and the intro, but even here stuff just didn't feel right. We had really high hopes for everything up to the point where Kylo Ren threw a fit....then everything went downhill from there on.
Here are some things that we disliked...
Kylo Ren is supposed to be a menacing character...but soon you realize he is just a kid...weak mentally and in force( how does he get beaten by a untrained girl with a light saber when he supposedly studied with Luke and is the leader of the knights of Ren?). The way they portrayed Kylo Ren just didn't show him as the menacing, dark and ruthless Vader that we love. Kylo Ren was nothing but a brat with a light saber. I think the scenes where he has the anger tantrums are just too much...I'm not watching Twilight here...this is Star Wars for God sakes...
Rey and Finn's story was interesting but her force powers manifested way too quickly. To the point that it made no sense. The way that the force was portrayed didn't really feel like the force that we know from the previous films. Yes...I'm sure the force helps with a light saber fight in the sense that you can see where the enemy is striking...but I'm pretty sure training in the forms of light saber combat doesn't just magically appear if you close your eyes and think about the force....
Poe...I really have no idea what they are gonna do with this guy. You know nearly nothing about him after one movie...yet he's supposed to be a important character. He appears and disappears for half the movie and then you see him in a xwing after for a few minutes at a time with little character development...
Leia and Han...definitely something felt off about the scene. Emotionless and stiff...they were just too "cool" about seeing each other and didn't seem like there was any emotion between them. If they had lost a son to the dark side...they did not show any emotion to go with it.
We hated how Poe tried to joke with Kylo Ren in the beginning... Yes, Han solo made jokes in the originals but at least it made sense and didn't seem forced.
No memorable war scenes compared to previous movies...starfighter fights were pitiful. Every one of the old trilogy had exciting battles(battle of Yavin, battle of Hoth, Endor...etc). Yes we saw the falcon and x wings....but what's the point of just seeing them without an exciting battle. There was no trench run, no harpoon to bring down ATATs and no blasting through the internals of the second death star...
Snoke...this guy is a joke. I felt like he was the child of mountain troll from LOTR and some marvel universe villain...just does not fit with star wars.
Captain Phasma, why was she even in the movie. Had maybe 2 minutes of talking screen time...useless character with no development at all through the movie.
General Hux...this guy was just plain annoying. His speech was annoying, seemed like something plucked from a villain from Harry Potter...nothing galactic or grand about it. He was also too young and made us feel like we were watching a movie for teens( divergent, hunger games style)
The force...the force was not in this movie....at least not as we know it. Apparently now all you need to do is think about the force and become the strongest warrior in the galaxy....you just don't get the sense that the force is what it was before...a connection between all living things...it was reduced to just a weapon...nothing more. Remember Vader told us that next to the power of the force, the ability to destroy even a planet is insignificant? Definitely don't see much of the power of the force here....
Starkiller base...just awful. You have little to no background on what it is or what it destroyed. It's just a mega death star...with the same megaflaw as the other death stars.
Music....horrible compared to the previous films. There was nothing memorable except for excerpts from Leias Theme from the first movies. At least we got Duel of the Fates and Across the Stars from the prequels....shame on your John Williams...
Now a few good points on the movie-> nostalgia factor is there with han, Leia, chewie, c3po, r2 and Luke showing up, the flight of the falcon on Jakku, bb8(fav part of movie). CGI was great.
Be warned though, this is not a true star wars movie...we both felt like it was a generic action movie with lightsabers and branded as star wars. Definitely didn't keep us on the edge of our seats.