Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Full spoilers below: As a way of delivering two hours of entertainment, this is a pretty decent movie. It's funny and fast-moving. As a generic Hollywood tent-pole, I'd give it a 7 out of 10. As a Star Wars movie, it fails on almost every level. I give it a 2 out of 10. For me, the core of "Star Wars" is the Hero's Journey - a young protagonist undergoing his or her coming of age, overcoming inner flaws and learning from the prior generation's mistakes. The original trilogy embraced this. "The Clone Wars" embraced this. "Rebels" embraces this. This is what makes Star Wars stories endure and connect with us years after the initial thrill ride is over. "The Force Awakens" provides lip service to this concept by introducing the character of Rey (Daisy Ridley.) Like any good protagonist, Rey has an inner need - the need to connect with a family that abandoned her for explicable reasons. She's winningly played by Ridley and given great dialog by Kasdan. So what's the problem? The problem is that Daisy Ridley is not the actual star of this movie. Or even Harrison Ford. No, the real star of "The Force Awakens" is "A New Hope." And the real antagonist is a man never seen on-screen but known to everyone: George Lucas. Everybody else's story is subordinated to one overriding goal: a 2-hour, multimillion dollar perfume-soaked love letter to "A New Hope" and "The Empire Strikes Back." and convincing us that J.J Abrams has ridden in on his white horse to "rescue" the franchise from evil Sith Lord Lucas. The movie actually works pretty well in the Jakku segment. Once Han and Chewie shows up, however, Rey's arc is sidelined in favor of a parade of every one of "The Original Trilogy's Greatest Hits." The StarKiller plot - a rehash of a rehash so eye-rolling and brazen, the movie actually trolls the audience about it. The "destroy the superweapon" plot is emotionally and narratively disconnected from the Luke McGuffin plot that supposedly launches Rey on her hero's journey. It lacks any tension and is a classic case of Sequelitis - bring back the threat that worked before and make it bigger and badder. So now it blows up five faceless planets of one. Magnify the scale rather than the emotional stakes. With all the money Disney has, there's no excuse for amateurish writing mistakes like this. What makes a properly executed Jedi student protagonist story work is that their arc is not about improving their fencing or warrior skills but about overcoming their fears and reaching the state of spiritual stability that allows them to harness the Force to its fullest. Their rite of passage is a test of character, not sword-fighting ability. Luke Skywalker bulls-eyed the exhaust port not because of superior aiming skills but because he overcame his fear of the unfamiliar and put his faith in the Force over technology. Kanan Jarrus defeated the Grand Inquisitor not because he suddenly became a master swordsman but because his belief that his Padawan had died freed him his fear. Ahsoka Tano in "Rebels" is a Force-wielding buddha that wipes the floor with two inquisitors not because of her combat experience in the Clone Wars, but because in the course of that series, she achieved what Anakin couldn't: overcoming her fears of charting her own path and learning to let go of her attachment to her Master and the Order. What triggers Rey's sudden transformation in a Jedi Master that kicks Kylo Ren's butt? Apparently, touching a lightsaber that "wakes up" the Force in her. In other words, she didn't grow up or face the emotional trials that matured into a wise Jedi. She was "activated." She becomes not a protagonist but a sleeper agent. Her triumph was bestowed by "destiny" and triggered by external events rather than any choices she makes. Robbing a protagonist of agency is one of the worst writing mistakes a story can make. This is the central failure of "The Force Awakens." Now I get that this movie is the first of a trilogy and Episodes 8 & 9 may yet provide a more satisfying arc for Rey. But an introductory movie should surely provide a satisfying arc in its own right, and "The Force Awakens" does not do so. Instead, it goes for an ending that's the functional equivalent of a Marvel post-credit singer. Hey, I'm Luke Skywalker and I'm here to make sure you come back for Episode 8. If the plot lets Rey down, the other characters fare no better. Let's take the villain, Kylo Ren. Whatever one might think of Hayden Christensen's portrayal of Anakin Skywalker (and there a lot of negatives), Anakin at least had an understandable motivation in that his falls was tied to his fear of losing the people he loved. What is Kylo Ren's motivation. What made the Dark Side so attractive to him? Because Han and Leia wouldn't buy him a pony? There's nothing to give us context here - he's just spoiled brat. Finn has a fascinating set up on paper: a soldier indoctrinated from birth to serve a cause that turns traitor. Unfortunately, there is no payoff for this setup later in the movie beyond a couple of FO soldiers yelling "Traitor!" - a scene that carries no emotional impact since we never experienced Finn's prior life as a stormtrooper or were ever given a plausible reason as to why he wouldn't have seen their evil before now. The First Order is portrayed with no subtlety as Space Nazis - there isn't even the appearance of a noble cause as there was with the Clone Army of the Republic or the old Jedi Order. On yes, the third member of the triad, Poe. It appears Poe was meant to have a larger role but got sidelined so that Solo could take his place. I have nothing to say about Poe as for now, he's an empty shell of a character - a pretty face and nothing more. Given his emasculated screen time, that's probably unfair to him but it goes again to underlie that the only protagonist that this movie truly cares about is "A New Hope". What about the legacy characters? Forget it. As far as this movie's concerned, they're not even characters. They're icons to be plastered on promotional posters to lure in the 40+ old crowd. Their characters arcs have been rolled back, their growth stunted for the sake of nostalgia. After 30 years, Han is still a smuggler. Leia is still a general barking orders in a command center. And Luke apparently has succumbed to the fate of Obi-Wan. He tried to train students, created the next Darth Vader and ran off to a remote planet to feel sorry for himself. All of the hard-earned victories in "Return of the Jedi" have been undone in the service of a never-ending money franchise. JJ and Kasdan simply couldn't come up with a story that carried enough narrative and thematic weight to justify extending the six part saga by a half-again its length. So instead, they wrote a reboot, marketed as a sequel, and crammed it wall to wall with Original Trilogy iconography. If X-Wings, Tie Fighters, Stormtroopers and the Millenium Falcon were the most important characters of the Original Trilogy to you, rejoice - this movie was made for you. If the living, breathing heroes were important to you, then good luck as this reboot stomps all over their legacy and turns them into the Trio of Galactic Losers. Oh yes, and Han Solo goes out like punk. JJ attempts to craft the faceoff between Han Solo and Kylo Ren into an emotional moment in the laziest possible way. Forget about making us care about the relationship and betrayal between these two by actually establishing an on-screen bond between them. Nope - just resort to the lazy writer's trick: introduce a bloodline relationship and thus, we're immediately supposed to feel the love and betrayal between Solo and a character he's never met on screen before. Sorry, nope. And as a final sting, the one thing no one expected to disappoint: John William's score. Limp and forgettable - it could have been a saving grace for this by-the-numbers movie but instead succumbs to its mediocrity. It just doesn't feel like William's heart was in this. Mine certainly isn't in watching this. I've heard it said more than once that if you want good storytelling nowadays, you need to turn to TV and not the big tent-pole movies that are so high stakes that all risk-taking and innovation is stifled. TFA has proved this maxim to the hilt. Thankfully, Star Wars continues to exist on the small screen as the "Rebels" animated series is run by people who actually understand what makes Star Wars great. Any one of the last three episodes that ended this year's half-season was far superior to JJ's multimillion dollar fan-fic. This, and not the movies, will continue to be the core of my "Star Wars."