Star Wars: The Profits Awakens

Rating: 1/10 (12 July 2016)

Star Wars is one of the most beloved franchises from people of all ages. It started with its beginning roots telling the story of the evil Galactic Empire bent on ruling the galaxy while hindering the progress of the Rebel Alliance, to the backstory of how the Republic was deceived by the Sith who enacted war under the guise of the Trade Federation. This film, however, mocks the genius, the integrity, and the furious action packed thrills that existed in all the other films that preceded it. This film is the perfect example of 21st Century Hollywood capitalizing on a franchise name for pure profits while playing it safe. Disney had its eyes for years on this and knew to take advantage when they got the chance.
The Force Awakens felt like a mere reboot than an actual entry into Star Wars series. People loved the original trilogy (which I'm not actually a huge fan of, though I personally still enjoy it anyways), but when the prequels came out the fans bashed it harshly. All blame came out on George Lucas being a terrible Director and Writer. When this was announced, it was thought to be the "saving grace" from Episodes I-III. Unfortunately it was not, and turned out to be worse than the prequels. Let's analyze this movie:
Director and Writing: J.J Abrams, or Jar Jar Abrams, had some good movies before this such as Super 8 and Star Trek, but being handed down the mantle of Star Wars was not his strongest suit. If I wanted to watch a film about flashy lens flares and camera shake with sudden focus zoom following unconvincing CGI spaceships flying through space, I would stick to Star Trek. What really disappointed me was the "playing it safe" rule by telling a story that was pretty much the same thing from Episode IV, only this time it's bigger and/or has a different name. Why didn't they just put Rey on Tatooine instead of a planet that is called Jakuu which pretty much looked the same? I don't know maybe because the Director and Writers got lazy and decided it didn't need to be authentic. Same goes for bringing a oppressive regime to the picture, The First Order, which was born from the defeat of the Empire. Guys, the Empire was finished and done for, so there is no reason to doing a throwback at the Original Trilogy. The jokes in this film are childish and do not blend in with the situations at hand. It is written to entertain children who couldn't understand the babbling of space politics in the other films. Not one time did I feel that there was an actual threat at hand, it felt like a silly Marvel themed space journey like Guardians of the Galaxy.
Characters: I do have to hand it to JJ that the acting and character development was put forth quite well, except the fact that The Force Awakens traded this off for plot convenience. Rey, a lonely farm girl left of Jakku, seemed to know how to do everything from fixing machines, piloting space ships, using Force Powers, and engaging the main villain in light saber combat with no training whatsoever. What no faults at all? Hmm that characterization is very uninteresting and boring to say the least. Finn, and let's be honest, was tossed in to add diversity to the main characters. He is cowardly, obnoxious, and is there to save the girl even if she can already save herself. Poe Dameron and Finn's relationship was the only thing that seemed morally self-sub-staining (although rushed a bit) since Poe faced execution and Finn was able to escape the First Order while developing a friendship in the midst of danger. Kylo Ren was not convincing as a villain and was a heaping balloon of hot gas ready to explode when something did not go his way. The casting of this character was flawed and was more whinny than Anakin was in the prequel trilogy.
Music Score and Sound Design: If I'm not getting any of the aforementioned components above, then you are going to get the music down right? Wrong. John Williams knows how to score Star Wars and has been doing it for Lucas for over 30+ years. This time around, JJ sighed and said "okay fine I won't use Michael, I'll get John to do it." The pitch and tones are all off in this movie and have no memorable tunes in any form like Episode I did with "Duel of Fates" or the "Empire March" in Episode V. I felt the energy of Star Wars was not present in the Force Awakens much to many disappointed fans. Abrams himself did not even research the previous sound effects in any of the other movies and made every object in the film feel weak, foreign, and pathetic like the music.
Visual Effects: Nice use of practical effects on their part I won't lie about that. But other than that, it was still unconvincing. The space ships and fighters looked completely unreal with the preferred use of going absolutely CGI with every film production nowadays. All the other films used miniatures combined with practical effects like pyrotechnics and computer effects such as photo realistic rendering to get a real looking result printed onto film strips for the first entry in the prequels (yeah that was quite an ingenious method for visuals when film strips were still being used). In this case it was either one or the other, no mixing allowed.
Overall I am completely disappointed and felt no real external threat to this epic space tale. There didn't seem to be any continuity to the series and as stated before, felt more like a reboot than a sequel. Hopefully the other entries will try to fix the problems this movie had. If they don't, then I'm afraid the sequel trilogy will become the new prequels.