So many wonderful things - poor editing

Rating: 8/10 (18 January 2016)

In so many ways this feels like a remake of New Hope, so I'm going to focus on the strengths and weaknesses relative to that.
Force has better acting, all around. Harrison Ford is better now than he was. Carrie Fisher is better now than she was. Mark Hamill doesn't have a big role in this, so there's less bad acting. (Seriously - go watch New Hope again, and tell me his acting would cut it in a movie released now?) Daisy Ridley is the BOMB, and Adam Driver is GOOD - both better performances than any in New Hope. John Boyega isn't quite as good, but still better than anyone in Hope.
The only performance from New Hope that's unmatched in Force is, of course, James Earl Jones as Darth Vader.
The visual are way, way better. Better than the original, better than the one they cocked up with strange additions a few years ago. It feels modern , first rate - watching New Hope now, it feels antique.
They did a nice job updating the design of the X-Wing fighters, and the Tie fighters. The stormtrooper uniforms look a bit anachronistic, left behind. No evidence of anyone there having the design vision of Ralph McQuarrie, but really, who else ever did, other than maybe Syd Mead?
The story is good - every scene is strong - the only weakness, and alas, it's a big one, is the editing. It feels like they shot a whole bunch of awesome scenes, probably enough for two full 90-100 minute movies. But then they decided they had too much footage, and instead of cutting whole scenes, they decided to trim each scene to the bone. Which they did. Each scene is taut, lean, nothing extraneous. But the movie moves along too quickly, too many transitions, and one gets the feeling that there were a lot of explanatory details left on the cutting room floor.
(For one: why would Captain Phasma lower the shields of Starkiller Base, to avoid being killed by Finn? By lowering the shields she surely would have forfeited her life as punishment by the emperor.)