An Updated Sci Fi Spectacle that Doesn't Quite Reach the Original

Rating: 7/10 (13 January 2019)

31 December 2015. In this reawakening of an old classic sci fi trilogy, a new generation is introduced to the original Star Wars (1977) phenomena and its moving onwards decades later. The audience is introduced to a new crop of rebels to a new younger generation of the Dark Force as well as the reemergence of original but older, aging Star War characters. The characters play out somewhat differently than the original with the charm of original Star War character interactions somewhat diminished in the newer plot outline. Harrison Ford continues with his charming humor, yet eventually its charm seems forced and a bit stereotypical, but even so his performance is charged with entertainment and delight. Carrie Fisher, now the reigning rebel monarch, presents a more mature yet captivating character whose presence continues to be welcome. The rest of the cast is mostly a rehash of the original Star Wars in similar guises but with a nice veneer of increasingly tantalizing special effects and 3-D imagery which however still has a ways to go to really push the potential of the visual envelope.
This newer Star Wars version mostly depends of the theme that bigger is better, a literally bigger villain, bigger relic ships, retains the Western Space Opera concept and omits the original character development of the original series, especially Finn and the director's decision to have his character over-act dramatically to highlight his differences at the beginning of the movie. Superficial in many respects, The Force Awakens. There are echoes of the singular female dominance of Sigourney Weaver's Riply from Alien (1979) and large scale set designs of the alien space ship and the lonely trek of Wall*e (2008). Finally, it is hard not to overlook the mounting technological and illogical plot points that occur throughout the movie such as the over-reliance of singular fighter ships by The New Order to decimate villages and rebel positions, the artificial slow-mo lasers and energy blasters, and the ancient use of outdated metal ships and corridors something one might imagine from World War II submarines, the poor operation of sensors allowing characters and ships to apparently come out of nowhere, or the quite obvious rolling path of BB-8 droid which leaves one of the most trackable marks over the sandy landscape ever.
Overall, The Force Awakens seems more like some memory or déjà vu, some vague but entertaining dream upon awakening in the real world. There are some fantastic vivid images, yet the dream doesn't quite seem to replicate the original awe and fun of the original or the epic nature of Dune (1984) directed by David Lynch or the more creative mind-bending sci fi of the new wave of movies such as Inception (2010), Another Earth (2011), Cloud Atlas (2012), The Congress (2013), The Host (2013), Oblivion (2013), Upside Down (2013), Gravity (2013), The Machine (2013), and Interstellar (2014).