Mediocre Movie

Rating: 5/10 (26 December 2015)

A friend of mine described this movie as "a good Star Wars movie, but not a good movie as such." He meant that Ep VII works if you've seen Star Wars before, but it can't really stand on its own legs otherwise as a masterpiece of its own. I'm grateful he told me this spoiler- less bit of opinion before seeing the movie, because otherwise I might have been a tad disappointed.
As such I got the most out of the movie when seeing it. It's easy for me to heap praise on the bits I appreciated and think they got right, like the gritty bits (Star Wars with a touch of 40k or Star Craft, one might say at times) with shipwrecks, raids, clandestine dealings and sense of lethal power in battle scenes. Refreshingly, the First Order military were not portrayed as a solid bunch of incompetents. Aesthetically it's all pleasing. The music didn't steal the show the way it did in the originals, though. There's lots of details, world building (which I've always appreciated overly much, allowing me to like even the prequels to some extent and more than like the Hobbit movies) and characters to like in the movie. The main villain's temperament problems when masked was funny. Even more so than the prequels, which felt like Star Wars without delivering too much of a great story.
Just like Jurassic World, this movie builds heavily upon references to the original(s). Not bad in and of itself, and Ep VII do deliver some new memorable scenes like Solo's two front gang confrontation and Chewie going berzerk. The handling of old characters returned is not poorly managed, and Ep VII manage ties-in with the original trilogy way better than the prequels did (e.g. why didn't a very young Han Solo show up in Ep III and why not use Tarkin in the background of the Emperor more than once in the prequels?). The main villain should've kept the mask on, though, because the mask-less performance wasn't that good apart maybe from the big event at the bridge.
However, there was something which I can't put my finger on, something probably about the pacing of the story or some similar movie rhythm that didn't always seem well crafted, unlike much of the original trilogy. Much as I liked many bits, the movie didn't pull the viewer into itself the way most of the original trilogy and some parts of Ep III did. Hope this works out better in the upcoming episodes. There were some other bits too, but nothing terminally wrong.
Also, would it have been better if the First Order was visibly under lethal pressure by forces of the Republic? The underdog role for the imperials made things interesting in the old Thrawn trilogy, and allowed the victory at Endor to have a large impact without wrecking all of the Empire. Might have been good to use that trick in the movie sequel to the originals, and then allow the First Order's actions to regrow it on screen into the monstrous threat which the old Empire once was.
And, naturally, if we ever needed proof that super-weapons are boring, we need only point to The Force Awakens. The Death Star worked the first time around on mere novelty, and the second time it worked since it played the part of trap and didn't even blow worlds to smithereens. Conventional military confrontations, like the battle of Hoth and Endor, are way easier to make interesting than a repeat of the quite dull narrative of destroy the super-weapon before it destroys you wholesale.
Don't draw inspiration from nukes, draw inspiration from the kind of battles humans has waged against each other from the dawn of time.
All in all, a neat watch. And I'll have to agree with my friend on his assessment, though it's not a bad score for the movie. Let's see if episodes VIII and IX can deliver better.
One reason why this might be a good Star Wars movie, but not a good movie as such, may be seen in one of the main characters, Finn. Having a Stormtrooper deserter as a main character is a sound decision, but it is poorly handled. We can see the man disillusioned by the blood and brutality of the raid. Decent enough, it goes against his nature or he just don't have the guts for it when push comes to shove.
Yet the effects of a life of Janissary-like brainwashing and indoctrination is nowhere to be seen. Unrealistically, there is no visible inner conflict and agony when the world view inculcated in Finn collides with what he makes of his new experiences. Unlike Nux in Fury Road, to mention a recent movie example. There is no strict, cruel or just odd behaviour left over from a life of Stormtrooper training (he hasn't known anything else since childhood years). There is a conviction that helping a man escape is "the right thing to do", but there is no visible inner clashes with such expected military virtues as duty, loyalty, obedience and sacrificing for the higher cause, which would fill up a space Janissary's ways of thinking.
On the upside, Finn's freak spike of power madness, when being in a position of control over his former captain, works.
The ex-Stormtrooper aspect should have been played up hard. As it is, Finn might pass for a disillusioned conscript with but a year or two of training behind him, but not as a soldier trained and brainwashed from his childhood years up, knowing of no other life than the service.
There are lessons for story tellers to be learnt from Episode VII, not least from its weak spots.