So I suppose the big question we have all been asking ourselves is: Is Disney interested in making quality films in this saga or are they too preoccupied with selling toilet paper with pictures of C3PO at double the price?The answer lies somewhere in between. Make no mistake about it: Half this script was made in their marketing department. They sat there with their polls and research and came up with ideas like: "Ooo, ooo. We need a female heroine for the female viewers. She must be very poor and alone, but insanely resilient and crafty. And an african-american. And a white man of course. Everybody likes white men. And to be sure we sell the market to young people we need all actors to be in their thirties and look like they are in their twenties. But wait? What about the old fans? Well, just stick some of the old geezers from the original trilogy in there (almost all in one scene - that doesn't look geriatric at all) and they will all cry with joy. Oh! And remember a cute robot".
So Disney still has no soul. J.J. Abrams though, might just have a little slice. He sets up a frantic pace to waken his audience and it almost gets tedious at first. But he soon finds a good balance and it all settles nicely. OK, so this doesn't have a homage here and there, it has practically stolen 70% of the script from "A New Hope". At times it's so obvious it makes you wonder if they ever hired anyone to do any writing at all.
But where this film is miles better than the pitiful "The Phantom Menace" or the uneven "Attack of the Clones" is dialogue and acting. Daisy Ridley really is brilliant, and Harrison Ford somehow manages to convince us that he actually wanted to do this film. The pair excels, and Ridley even makes Boyega look okay whenever they're on screen together. Boyega has the misfortune of an abject character. A somewhat less irritating version of what Shia Labeouf did in Transformer. A pussy, a whiner and a most unwanted character to give screen-time. In case no one had noticed: The robots are there for comical relief, there is no other need for dorks.
It's always been my opinion that a big movie needs a huge villain. Like Darth Vader, Ian McKellen's excellent Magneto or even the lingering shadow and fire of Sauron. There needs to be an imminent and most serious threat. George Lucas understood this in his second trilogy and found Darth Tyranus (when is ever Christopher Lee wrong for an epic villain?) and the astute Palpatine in Ian McDiarmid's safe hands. The villain here? He's a puppy who has eaten your newspaper. And looks like a guy sulking over not having been invited out to a party with his emo-vampire-friends. Supreme leader Snoke has a bit of potential though, and his scenes have stunningly clever visuals. But they need a new ultimate villain, giving him some scars and harder eyes just won't cut it. First Order also seems like a cartoonish version of the Government from "V for Vendetta".
The red thread in the story is the search for Luke Skywalker, and in this respect Abrams does absolutely everything right. Seriously; all fans of Star Wars want to see Luke found and when the main theme in the story is that unifying, it actually saves quite a bit. When Luke is ultimately found in the last scene it is a fantastic ending to a somewhat mediocre film.
John Williams still has a few good notes in him so the music is, in every respect, great.
This movie is very entertaining and has a nod for both new fans and the generations past. But there are too many big flaws that this was worth the wait. As a setup for a sequel it could just do the trick though. We all want to see more of Luke Skywalker. The original redneck saviour of the Universe.
6/10
