Looking to reinject a bit of vitality here (and hopefully, given it’s more than a week since the premiere, most of the forumites might have already seen it, but SPOILERS! In any case).
I liked The Force Awakens, although for me it wasn’t exactly “The second coming/revival of the franchise” that it was for other people. Then again, I did like Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, even in spite of all their flaws (The Phantom Menace, on the other hand, can remain sealed in the Disney Vault for the rest of eternity, as far as I’m concerned).
Looking at reviews, the most common complaint seems that it repeats too many story beats from the original trilogy, especially from A New Hope. That ultimately didn’t bother me though. Considering that even the most positive reviews pointed out that, in some respects, it was almost a remake of A New Hope, I went to the theater with my expectations in check.
What did bother me was that some things felt... off. The Starkiller Base in particular. Despite being a weapon that dwarfed the Death Star in terms of size and destructive power, it just didn’t have the same dramatic impact. From the revelation of the weapon, to the scene when the First Order launches the attack against the New Republic, to the infiltration and destruction of the base by the heroes, it just lacked the punch that similar scenes in A New Hope had. It just felt… well, “there”.
The ending also felt too abrupt, and after waiting the entire movie for Luke to finally show up, the fact that he was only on screen 30 seconds and didn’t even talk was frustrating.
Those complaints aside, I did enjoy the movie, especially because of the characters. All of the actors gave strong performances and the movie did a fine job establishing the story arcs for the new characters, while paying respect to the returning ones. Indeed, I think the character beats were the strongest part of the movie and what ultimately elevated it.
The dead of Han Solo is a good example. Despite the fact that I pretty much predicted how the scene was going to play out given Han’s turn as the Obi Wan of the movie, it still came as a genuinely heart wrenching moment. Rather than turn out like a cliché, the strong performances of both Harrison Ford and Adam Diver elevated the scene and gave it the necessary gravitas. Even more, the scene comes as an appropriate coda to Han and a turning point for Kylo Ren.
This is interesting, given it’s generally accepted that the major weak point of the prequels on the whole was the stilted performances and the way some characters were handled.
In that sense, I’m willing to forgive the lack of originality of the movie, although now that the stage is set and the pieces are in place, I hope incoming Episodes of this new trilogy dare to take a few more risks.