As a big 'Star Wars' fan I just had to review this one. This is undoubtedly the biggest film released in the past decade, and its huge success at the box office is proof that me and many others were greatly anticipating more 'Star Wars' action in a setting previously unexplored by the previous films. This was a fresh new era for 'Star Wars' with acclaimed director J.J. Abrams taking the helm from the legendary George Lucas. But is this new 'Star Wars' deserving of the box office records its smashed and the praise it gained almost unanimously from critics? Well that's a question that's very much debatable. This review will contain a lot of spoilers, so don't say you haven't been warned.
Certainly the whole 'Star Wars' style of presentation is included. The money spent on the film was used effectively, just like we all knew it would be, and this new lick of paint gives the 'Star Wars' universe a sumptuous feel that you always dreamt the films would look like in your childhood dreams. The new galaxy is visually exciting and full of vivid life forms that only expand on the already huge world of 'Star Wars', and this world has even been populated by a new cast that strangely for a 'Star Wars' film put in some good performances. This new babyfaced cast surprised me with their genuinely good standard of acting, and the diverse cast all pulled their weight even if some of the personalities aren't as iconic as a 'Star Wars' mainstay should be. Included in this new film is Princess Leia's grandmother, a female clone of Anakin Skywalker, and a hormonal teenager playing a Sith Lord. A cast that diverse is bound to tell an exciting story, but I can't help but feel Daisy Ridley and John Boyega were rather underwhelming in their respective starring roles. They both put in believable performances, yet never feel like they belong in such an epic adventure like the cast of the original films did. Ridley in particular was a character who seemed to be able to do everything instantly, but never excelled at any of these roles. I feel her character wasn't helped by having almost no time to be developed, and her apparently grand journey was paced awfully, ending up with her in a central focus that she really doesn't deserve at this point in the trilogy. When you compare this pacing to the tale of Luke Skywalker it becomes clear that on this leading path Ridley's character does not have what it takes to be a legend of the 'Star Wars' franchise. Luke never fucked over a Sith after just one film; his journey was spread out over three films, yet I'm supposed to believe that Ridley's overnight success is plausible. Okay Ridley's character is helped along by legends of the franchise, but even a character as legendary as Han Solo can't carry Ridley into the limelight after such a short time.
I'm sorry, you two just aren't charismatic enough to be truly memorable characters, yet alone the heroes one of the biggest movies of all time.
Abrams' mistakes continue when you consider the plot of this new film. I imagine Abrams took a look at the fourth film in the franchise, and then put the script of that film through a photocopier. Abrams kept the part where a droid that contains important information falls into the hands of an unlikely hero who then gets captured and people try and rescue her from the enemy. He also kept the setting on a desert planet that has problems with poverty, and how the journey on this planet is sidetracked with the meeting of two smugglers, and also the part where the heroes blow up a huge planet sized ship owned by a totalitarian regime hellbent on destruction thanks to their new superweapon. In truth Abrams just blatantly copied the plot from the fourth film, which isn't really acceptable when this film takes place just thirty years after the original trilogy's galaxy changing events. Come on Abrams, do you genuinely expect me to believe that this new 'evil empire' would build another planet destroying ship thirty years after the last two were destroyed in almost identical fashion? It's all very well showing that history is repeated, but when the repetition is so implausible the plot becomes a predictable and dumb affair.
What amazed me is that this planet destroying ship being blown up wasn't actually part of the main plot, which was the more menial task of finding Luke Skywalker in order for him to do fuck all. Unlike the originals there didn't seem to be any purpose to this menacing ship, only providing a method for Abrams to show off those nice effects and fast paced action sequences as if he got Michael Bay to write the script. I accept that many 'Star Wars' films contain plot points that hinge on an unbelievable coincidence, but in this film I felt these coincidences became more noticeable and overshadowed an overall less meaningful and lazy plot. Abrams just lets the viewer assume key details without expanding on the already rich 'Star Wars' experience, and that's annoying in a franchise where there is almost a limitless possibility of places to take the plot. I can't help but feel that Abrams just played it safe to appease the majority of fans, and for me that's not what the wonder of 'Star Wars' should be about, and actually places the film in the territories of the more generic action flick.
Was this a scene from four or seven? See, it's really hard to tell, and that's the primary problem with the plot; nothing stands out as original or fresh.
The overall script was another recurring problem that I found far too predictable and samey for what could have been an epic film. Even the prequels had a larger emphasis on building up tension and keeping the audience guessing despite having the disadvantage of being set before the original storyline; but at least George Lucas tried to experiment and mix things up. In this new episode I felt that Abrams forced the viewer to fill in the gaps themselves rather than give any explanation or purpose to the settings and events of his film. The scene pictured above for example is when this Third Reich style faction decide to blow up a whole system of planets for apparently no reason at all. Is this a huge event in the 'Star Wars' storyline? Yes, so why doesn't Abrams get the viewer to care about these things? For all we know this could have been accidental after the 'First Order' got bored on a Sunday, but even in the world of cartoon violence that 'Star Wars' is famed for this event was dreadfully executed. Another gap that was left for us to fill in despite having adequate airtime was that huge Sith thing, who on the face of things is like nothing we've ever seen in the series before. But guess what, thanks to poor scripting the viewer is left with a seemingly pointless character that's hard to even care about with so little context given. I really liked some of the new inclusions in this expanded universe, so why the hell didn't Abrams show off these new elaborate constructs like any other great artist would?
Who the hell are you? Even The Emperor had more of a description in the fifth film, and he was barely even in it.
Once you get past the flimsy story you can at least respect the action sequences for their occasional moments of brilliance. I do admire Abrams for trying to inject some energy into the franchise in a far better way than George Lucas ever did in his prequels, and although this change of direction isn't going to please every 'Star Wars' fan, it is at least a surefire way to make sure the franchise becomes successfull with modern audiences. Sometimes the tendency to overindulge certain action sequences did alienate the lifelong fan inside me, but maybe these increasingly mature scenes are the change that 'Star Wars' needs to push it away from simply trivialising full scale intergalactic conflicts. I still would have liked to have seen the fun that made the original 'Star Wars' films so brilliant to watch, and by that I mean choreograph a better lightsaber battle, as the one in this film was piss poor. It's all very well putting all that extra effort into cool looking lightsabers, but then to ruin that on what was a battle filled with amateurs is inexcusable. I'm sure this will be addressed in the next film, but don't feel the need to try and force these classic scenes into a 'Star Wars' film when they're not required. A two minute lightsaber battle at a snails pace was not what anyone ordered, and this all goes back to my criticisms of Abrams just playing it safe and not trying to experiment with where he wants the series to be taken.
Underwhelming and very short. No it wasn't my sex life, but this pointless lightsaber battle.
Overall I have to say that this new film was not at level I expected after reading such positive reviews beforehand. This was never going to be as bad as the horror show that started off the prequels, and for that we can be thankful, but even the prequels had much greater climaxes and a lot more innovation in their production. This new film was a fast paced affair, and I enjoyed watching almost all of it, but to say there wasn't that overriding feeling of disappointment would be lying. I don't hate this film at all, and people that are directly comparing this film to the originals are obviously going to be underwhelmed, but this was a film that brought 'Star Wars' into a modern era, and you have to say that it does cater to a modern audience very well. In terms of quality though, this is just average for a 'Star Wars' film, and I even thought the third film was better overall. The third film never felt like another version of old 'Star Wars' content, and all we got with this new one was some rehashed graphics and an updated presentation. That's all fine, but there was always that 'Star Wars magic' in the originals, and despite being a good film this new episode is a culprit of forgetting about that 'magic' for most of its duration.
Final Score: 7/10 ***1/2
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