The ANH parallels are so obvious, and must be intentional. Given the elements they had to work with, such as Kylo Ren's obsession with Vader, and the Resistance, it made some sense in universe. I expect the next movie to be much more original in that regard now that they've regained the fans' trust.
BB-8 was excellent, and the "acting" was cute and hilarious (and I'm pretty sure its voice is Bebot). Everyone was cracking up during the exchange on the Falcon between BB-8, Fin and Rey. Rey, Fin and Poe were all great, and did a good job of carrying the movie. I'm glad they gave plenty of time to the new characters, and there's still a lot of room for each character to develop. Chewy and Han were awesome to have back too. The dialogue all felt much more real than the prequels, and the humour flowed naturally from it for every character.
Some of the old elements was a bit much at times, but it didn't really bother me, it just felt unlikely. Luke's lightsaber was just in that building the whole time, the Falcon was just sitting there as the first ship in range, a few other minor things.
I loved the fighting style all around. Those stormtroopers were going down in all sorts of glorious ways, and I never got tired of seeing them fly. The lightsaber fights weren't pretty, they were frantic, a little clumsy, and much like a real sword fight where you're both going to get hurt, and it's not going to be a 15 minute choreographed dance routine. The lack of skill of the characters made the fights much better.
On the negative side, I didn't really like Kylo Ren or Snoke much. Kylo Ren felt too frat-boy copycat criminal. Snoke's CG was just offputting. Actually, most of the CG characters felt a bit offputting compared to the physical creatures, like that orange midget with the glasses. I also didn't like the ending. They spend the whole movie trying to find Luke, but BB-8's map is incomplete. Then at the end R2-D2 just decides to wake up now and had the other 90% of the map the whole time. It felt like a rushed ending to set up the next movie. Luke looked awesome in the Jedi robes with his contractually obligated beard.
Overall I thought it was very good, and enjoyed it. It felt like a long movie, but not slow, more packed full of a lot to digest. In some ways it felt like classic Star Wars, but it also brought a lot of new elements to it that wouldn't have been possible in the OT or even the PT, and gave it a new feel of its own that made it fresh and exciting.
Topic: Star Wars, The Force Awakens -- *SPOILERS* (Read 59432 times)
