First thing: If you didn't see any "Star Wars" and you'd like to start with this one, maybe it's better to stop reading here. You're the fortunate case! You might not get many references from the movie, but you might still like it. And it doesn't make sense to alter your expectations by getting a couple spoilers, which I'll try to minimize, even though it's impossible for me to remove them completely...
Now let's get to us, the rest who had a piece of the SW universe before. If I would do a statistic of my blog entries and the associated ratings, I think what I'd get would be at least 2/3 in accordance with most of the professional critics related to the "fresh" vs "rotten" verdict for a move. That's for saying that I can't be accused of being against the wave just for the sake of doing so. This was a disclaimer for what follows ... Because I'm baffled by the appreciation "The Force Awakens" gets. I simply can't understand, and unfortunately I can't say that I've read many reviews to get it .. but the reason for that is that they don't present reasons! at least not objectively! Besides subjective awe and ecstatic appreciation like wow, we finally find out that Force is in anything that's living (no man, we knew that already!!! - and seriously, I've seen that in a review by a "top critic"), that stormtroopers have heart and are capable of feelings (we knew that too! at least literally speaking = they're humans for God sake!), and others like these ... I'll try to make an objective analysis of what we're served with (as objective as I can). And I'll start with the negative part, because ... the dark side is stronger in this one.
Let's leave aside the many parts that are too SciFi even for a SciFi, because that's what we get in pretty much any movie of this size. This is minor. Let's get to what's much worse than this, and a first mark to make is the negative character: Kylo Ren. The comparison with Darth Vader is unavoidable. Both the one in the original series, and also Anakin Skywalker from Ep. I-III. The difference is huge. Hayden Christensen got many critics for his acting skills when he played Anakin, but ironically exactly his lack of expression served him extremely well for a character who's slowly dehumanizing. The voice of James Earl Jones for the original Darth Vader is the definition of charisma. That's totally lacking in the new movie. Maybe it's not that much the actor's fault, but the script is definitely to blame. Let's move over the unknown reason why the guy wears a mask, which is also damaged (maybe the Dark Side lacks funds for renewing helmets). The character is hilarious ... it's prone to parody. His nervous breakdowns when he strikes everywhere with his sword like a spoiled teenager made me think on the "Spaceballs" Darth Vader version. There's needless to say that even the movie itself makes a laugh out of it with one of the many jokes that aren't at all fit in the script = we have a scene when during such a breakdown, two stormtroopers change their patrolling route which passes by the the angry wielder of the red laser. May the Schwartz be with us ...
J.J. Abrams tried something that worked in "Star Trek". It made it more relaxed. And it worked because he had room to make it more relaxed (plus the crew of the original series fits with that). You can't do the same with "Star Wars". SW has already a wide target audience that's much less geek oriented compared to ST, and which includes also small age categories. There's no room, and in many situations as the joke above or other aspects it feels that "nope, that didn't work" ...
That's something more that Abrams got in "Star Trek", superbly I could say, and here gets close to embarrassingly bad. Trying to make key references through scenes close to the previous movies. Kirk's death scene in "Into Darkness" for instance, the exact opposite of the similar death of Spock in "Wrath of Khan" .. this was pure gold. Inverting the roles almost identically, the alternate timeline, the same negative character, the climax moment in the movie, there's lots of stuff that put together give a connecting point over years with the older movie, and it's impossible not to feel something about it if you know what dots to connect. "Star Wars" on the other hand is simply repetitive ... and that's it ... we start with a droid lost in the desert who carries a secret message (sounds familiar?) ... we have a bigger and meaner Death Star which does pretty much the same thing as the previous one: destroys planets ... and (spoiler alert) we have the climax scene as in "Star Trek", in which we also have here the role inversion, father-son with a reference to "Empire Strikes Back". Only that the symmetry we had in ST that hit you with a nostalgic feeling of "history repeats", that symmetry is really messed up here ... Ironically even if the symmetry is not that much there, probably unfortunately intending to obtain something original, this originality suffers of another huge problem: it's ultra-predictable! where ultra = you know what follows with something like 5-10 minutes before the scene's climax ... But, let's stop here and keep the "surprise" factor.
And still ... let's not drop it completely. Probably the scene wanted to be a key moment in the movie. A memorable one. It fails badly. Stuff that only happened (maybe) in "The Phantom Menace". In each of the other "Star Wars" we have at least a scene to remember. In "A New Hope" is either the first sight of Darth Vader, or the destruction of the Death Star. In "Empire Strikes Back" is the duel Darth Vader vs. Luke when the latter loses his hand. In "Return of the Jedi" is the death of Darth Vader and the first time when the mask falls down. In "The Clone Wars" is the duel Yoda vs. Dooku when we see for the first time why Yoda carries a sword. In "Revenge of the Sith" is the ending of the Anakin vs. Obi-Wan duel and practically the birth of Vader. In "Phantom Menace" maybe it wanted to be the death of Qui Gon Jinn, but that didn't work as it doesn't work now either ... you cannot have a key scene that looks like trying to repeat another key scene but it's also undecided about that ...
Let's move a bit to the light part ... at least a bit. The movie is long but you can't feel it. I have to admit this. And if one of the worst problems is the negative character, maybe the best part is the positive character: Rey. Finally, we have a girl as Jedi knight :) + the actress did her job perfectly. Unfortunately I can't appreciate much besides these. What I can, is to hope that "The Force Awakens" will be an Episode I "The Phantom Menace" comparing to what's coming after ...
Rating: 3 out of 5
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