La guerre des étoiles VII - Le réveil de la force

Episode VII is a movie that was massively hyped up before release. As a result, it was extremely disappointing to many. I was skeptical but hopeful before watching this movie once I learned JJ Abrams and Disney would be taking the helm (Disney certainly has the funding and I thought Abrams did a decent job with the Star Trek movies). Sadly, I feel this movie really did fail to live up to its potential overall.

Here are some of the bright spots:

-The movie features a couple of the actors from the first trilogy, most notably, Harrison Ford! He plays a prominent role in the movie and does a pretty good job of reprising his role as Han Solo.

-The special effects are great!

Unfortunately, that's about it for the pros.

Here is the list of reasons this movie failed to impress me:

-The story isn't original or well-thought out at all. There will be numerous occasions where something will happen, but seemingly for no reason at all other than to conveniently advance the plot.

-As many people have pointed out, the plot borrows far too heavily from the story lines of the previous movies.

-JJ Abrams was extremely liberal with his interpretation of Jedi lore and use of the Force. This leads to some pretty absurd plot developments and scenes involving the lead characters demonstrating mind-boggling proficiency in using the Force/lightsaber. I mean, these scenes make no sense at all and there is NO attempt to explain or provide backstory as to how said lead characters developed their skills; it's like suddenly they become superheroes within a week, with no training whatsoever.

-The villains are largely forgettable. The main villain looks and acts like a wuss. He is not intimidating at all after his introductory scene. The other villains have barely any backstory or character development.

Overall this movie was a disappointment. I can only hope that the next director doesn't continue in Abram's footsteps, as Episode VII was nothing more than a hollow shell of a Star Wars movie to me.

From the virtue signaling of social justice, to the cheap-jack plot-line which was easily discerned in advance, to the awful acting which evoked little but hooting from me, I was, as you can see, disappointed, and in some cases outraged. If you dare to join me, I will explain.

I have nothing against diversifying the Star Wars universe, which is why I LOVED Star Wars 1, with its Oriental villains, Jamaican Gungan, Jewish scrap dealer, and more. It was a delight of indulgence which fleshed out characters of charm, making the experience vivid and interesting. But after Lucas received flak for ethnic portrayal, Jar-Jar became boring in Star Wars 2. In Star Wars 7, this pandering becomes intolerable. It's fine that Leah has the force, and it's fine that Rey inherited it, but Finn is gratuitous in his race. I would have nothing against this either but they make Finn formidable with a light-sabre against Kylo Ren. And please don't soft-soap me that love gave Finn the strength and skill to take on a pupil of the force - only hate has that power, the dark side. Otherwise, one must be cool and focused. Given this, I dismiss Finn and therefore it irritated me to watch Kylo Ren sword-play with Finn and not simply crush his windpipe with a wave of his hand, or penetrate his mind, which seems to be Ren's forte. As for Kylo vs. Rey, a bit more believable, but it made Kylo seem almost inept. Really? Rey's raw ability with zero training is tougher than Kylo with training? Not even close to believable.

What didn't I like about the plot? Well, first, aren't we simply replaying Death Star destruction from the first trilogy? Why, yes we are. And it looks like the Supreme Leader made all the same engineering, logistic, and tactical errors as the Emperor, just on a grander scale, including the convenient "having to recharge the cannon" just long enough for the Resistance to "win the day." Yawn. Second, much of the plot was geared to exploit the Skywalker/Solo family tree, and there was no thrill to any of it. Darth Vader is Luke's father - WHOA! I jumped out of my seat. Han is Kylo's father? Zzzz. Even if you wanted to say this was a remake, which it's not, it doesn't have the pizazz, never mind the oomph, of the original. But what does?

But the acting is where I think I really blew my cool. I can understand characters of convenience, and plot-lines of olde being rehashed, but it has to be acted well to pull it off. Even in Star Wars 3, as sappy as it was, the acting was GREAT, IMO. In Star Wars 7, Harrison Ford is just about limping to his finale, Carrie Fisher looks doddering and not commanding, Daisy Ridley grits her teeth so often I thought she was Red Sonja, John Boyega makes a concerted effort to appear naive at every turn (which makes his good fortune all the more unbearable), Adam Driver does not look torn in the least, and so forth.

I can point to hundreds of interesting and thrilling moments from the first six episodes of Star Wars which makes a complete weekend binge-watch, over and over again. Star Wars 7 does not add to that excitement. The tech seems standard, the CGI a little too self-conscious, the nostalgic cheese forced, the push forward too bossy and not natural. Still, I give this film a 6 in the hopes that Star Wars 8 will push the envelope once again.

Ever since I was a kid, I loved this franchise. Even episode 1, by far the worst in the series, had that "star-wars feel". Mostly thanks to great casting of Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor, awesome new dark side character and dual light saber. So despite extremely high expectations, the series wasn't ruined and effectively picked up in dark episode 3. Then Disney followed up with this one, with J.J.Abrams at helm, which once again rose the expectations. Well it's not good. Especially the casting and acting of younger stars. Even Harrison Ford and Chewy can't save this mess. It may be a blasphemy, but unfortunately Ford can't pull off ' "the cool". Sorry guys, he's a bit too old, so some action scenes look out of place. The casting of young stars was atrocious. Simply bad. Bad chemistry, Bad looks (ecpecially the Kylo Ren character), badly choreographed fights, Bad everything. On top of which, Abrams took the period as a remake of original which should not be touched! At all. Due to stunning (as expected) visuals, and a personal love to the universe, this movie can be watched, but if this awful trend continues, even special effects and millions of fans won't be able to save the series.

In essence a remake of 'A New Hope' as opposed to a proper sequel, the check-box resemblance this long-awaited revival shares to its franchise's debut is genuinely uncanny and sadly staggering since this was the perfect opportunity to try something new considering that the 'Star Wars' moniker is a powerful enough box-office draw to recoup any budget, apparently no matter how exorbitant, and withstand more than a few bad apples (*cough* the prequels *cough*). What's here in 'Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)' is based on nothing more than nostalgia, a series of slightly sickening "remember this thing"'s and "this guy still looks the same but he's grey now"'s that become incredibly tiresome increasingly quickly. If you take away the franchise underlayer you're just left with a hollow, characterless piece that gives you no reason to care and very little actual information despite all its endless exposition. In the end, I was honestly bored even during all of its high-flying fanfare. 5/10

Currently this movie is sitting at an 8.4 on IMDb. Even with the "new movie effect", that score is pretty ludicrous.

When I left the cinema, I said to my wife, "I wouldn't give this movie anything more than a very generous 7". Since then some of the post-theatre-euphoria has worn off and the more I actually think about this movie, the lower the score becomes.

There are several reasons for this: the plot is derivative, I didn't care about any of the new characters, the characters that I DID care about, I only cared about because I know them from the original series, there were far too many convenient "coincidences" in the story and not enough background for any of the major factions (New Order? The Resistance? What happened to the Republic?). I also felt like overall the tone of the film was too comedic (lacked any real sense of drama, seriousness, or anticipation) and that the pacing was much, much too frenetic.

Now I find myself wondering if I had never seen the original series-- i.e. if I were a blank slate -- would this film even make sense? I'm not really sure. It certainly doesn't stand up well on its own, and neither does it fit particularly well within the scope of the Star Wars universe.

I tried my best to like this movie. I really, really wanted to; but in the end I think there was too much lazy writing on display and too many poor script choices.