Review of Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) by Mark A — 17 Feb 2018

J.J. Abrams gets Star Wars back to looking visually like the original trilogy, which is clearly good. There's some interesting story arcs being set up, ultimately ruined by the appalling and disgraceful, The Last Jedi.

There is, however, too much fan pandering and modern pop-culture moments in the movie, and a lot of ethnically diverse casting, just for the sake of having an ethnically diverse cast. Also, the way in which the main protagonist, Rey, develops her force skills, is poorly executed.

If she had exhibited some moderate skills in the beginning, when she lived alone, it would have been slightly more plausible when she took on an adversary with force skill training. Overall, an entertaining movie, with plenty of little flaws to annoy hardcore Star Wars fans and even casual fans, but not a complete disaster; the disaster would follow in the form of The Last Jedi.