Not much beyond nostalgia

Rating: 5/10 (9 January 2016)

After butchering Star Trek, J.J.~Abrams has now set out to slowly bleed the Star Wars franchise to death. It is hard to believe how little of an creative spark he actually has. The story is essentially a boring remake of the first (original) Star Wars movie, with only some sequences out of order to make it look like a new film. The only new idea was making the villains even more strikingly incompetent than in the original movies. The main villain is a Darth Vader wannabe reminiscent of an emo teenager who cannot do anything right, especially not fighting with a light saber. The new ''emperor'' looks like Gollum (literally played by the same actor) and his evil ''elite'' forces consist of baby-faced yuppies. On the good guy side, the main characters are a bland ex-stormtrooper who without any effort overcomes his imperial brainwashing, an desert scavenger-ninja woman who -- without effort -- turns into a skillful Jedi (well, skillful enough to defeat an allegedly trained evil Jedi), and an ace pilot who so far does not much more than being an ace pilot.
Nostalgia is taken care of by having Han Solo and Princess Leia in the plot, along with plenty of ironic nods to the past films -- as if copying the plot wasn't enough of a nod.
What can be said in favour of the film is that it looks very good. The special effects are good, and the locations, original or not, are beautiful.