Director: J.J. Abrams
Writers: Lawrence Kasdan, J.J. Abrams, 2 more credits »
Stars: Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac | See full cast and crew »
Storyline
30 years after the defeat of Darth Vader and the Empire, Rey, a scavenger from the planet Jakku, finds a BB-8 droid that knows the whereabouts of the long lost Luke Skywalker. Rey, as well as a rogue stormtrooper and two smugglers, are thrown into the middle of a battle between the resistance and the daunting legions of the First Order. Written by Noah White
I am a big fan of the OT, and like many fans was disappointed by the silly prequels. I felt excited for this new trilogy, and hoped JJ Abrams was going to be able to give us new stories to propel the series forward. After the prequels, at least there was the hope of someone new coming in and renewing the sense of magic and wonder that have been the very soul of the OT. Now this hope has been extinguished. Disney has put so much effort into safely making money (a lot of it, too), from the cash cow that is Star Wars, that they have stifled any creativity that could have made this movie great.
For more detail read below :
I saw the movie last night, and here are its best and worst moments.
What worked:
1. Imagery - hands down, awesome visuals, but that is to be expected given how much this movie must have cost to make.
2. The new droid, BB8 is cute
3. There was no Jar Jar Binks :)
4. Some humor, still falling a bit flat of the original
5. The reunion of Han Solo and Chewbacca, those two were as great as ever
What did not work (for me)
1. The weak story - practically a rehash or the "A New Hope" plot, but without the freshness and creativity that made the original work so well. Throughout the whole movie I had the feeling of "been there, done that", and ended up being bored. I mean, we are destroying the Death Star for a third time now, really? Ooooh, but this time it is bigger. And we are again hiding a secret information in a droid?. Snooze.
2.The main characters. What worked so well in the OT was they had introduced very charismatic characters and they also took the time to develop them and give us reasons to care for them. The creation of bonds of friendship and camaraderie between Han, Luke and Leia happened organically, made sense and was justified. The three new leads try to display the same, but it feels forced as nothing in the story should have lead them to feel that way about each other. I could not bring myself to are about Poe, or Rey or Finn, so not sure how they will carry the franchise forward
3. Weak villains who do not project enough danger for the Resistance. I admit, it must be hard to equal, let alone top, such awesome villains as Lord Vader or the Emperor. Still, the new villains, Supreme Commander Snoke, Kylo Ren and Hux come across as average wanna-bees and do not provide the necessary feel of dread, to make us feel threatened.
4. Weak script. I had high hopes after I learned Lawrence Kasdan was writing the script, but my hopes were unfounded. In the OT each main character was given a very compelling reason why they were involved with the rebels. For Leia, it was because of her father, Luke saw his family killed, and Han, after his initial resistance, had fallen for Leia and had come back to rescue Luke during the raid against the Death Star. In this new movie, there was no compelling reason for Finn, and ex-storm trooper, to somehow overcome being brainwashed and conditioned to kill and develop high moral principles and sense of humor. For Rey, there was no compelling reason to rescue BB8 in the desert. Poe was already with the resistance, but feeling all buddy-buddy with Finn happened all of a sudden, more because of "well the main characters are supposed to be like that" rather than any sense-making reason
5. No character development. I cannot believe that they had such golden opportunity to introduce the new leads who should have been these new interesting characters, and they did nothing to develop them and make us feel any sense of camaraderie with them! I mean, Finn, trying to overcome his storm trooper conditioning; Rey going from a desert scavenger to something more; Kylo Ren's insecurities, his volatility and his rivalry with Hux - all of these could have been used to give us some memorable moments, and instead were wasted.
6. Things happening too quickly and in a forced way. Remember how Luke had to train to access the Force and gain any control over it? Remember Ben Kenoby, a seasoned Jedi, using Jedi mind tricks? Well the new Jedi uses these things without any training at all, it all just happens out of nowhere
7. Musical score. The Star Wars theme is easily one of the most epic, amazing movie scores ever written. If I had not wanted to be a Jedi so bad, just the Imperial march alone would have made me join the Dark Side :))) So I was hoping we were going to get some more musical awesomeness, after all, it did happen for the sucky prequels, right? Not so here. To my disappointment, there was no awesome First Order theme, no nothing. It pains me so much to say that, because in my mind John Williams is and will remain the greatest movie composer ever