Forced

Rating: 7/10 (3 January 2016)

The pervasive hype in the days before it opened should have been a warning sign. This movie is better than the prequel trilogy - in the sense that it sticks more closely to the look and feel of the originals - but it falls well short of the epic restoration we all wanted to see. It's closer to Return of the Jedi than to Phantom Menace - but not troubling ESB for top spot in my affections.
Somehow it feels a little too forced and ill-paced. A bit like it's trying too hard. JJ Abrams is a great director - there's no doubting that - but somehow this movie didn't quite make it. It's too full of compromise. Character development and back-story has simply been discarded, in favour of pushing the movie on and cramming it all in. What exactly is the relationship between the Empire / First Order and The Republic, and why are there still rebels? What went wrong? Last time we saw the characters they were dancing in a forest on Endor. Vader was redeemed and the Emperor destroyed..... so what the heck happened? The crawl at the beginning tries to explain, but it all feels superficial and recycled, and virtually every plot element is lifted from the original trilogy.
The action was good, but the interaction of the characters was poor. Han and Leia once had real chemistry, but that's missing entirely from this movie. It's certainly not cringe-worthy dialogue, as in Revenge of the Sith, but not snappy or witty either.
It will be very interesting to see how history views this one. It's nearly 20 years since Phantom Menace graced movie screens, and I remember the hype that surrounded that too. The reviews were great and the fans loved it - for a while. Since then it's slid inexorably into an abyss of fan vitriol and hatred. I hope this one isn't going to go the same way.