Don't read if you don't like spoilers.
When I first saw the new star wars movie, I had slightly warm feelings towards it, and considered it an ok action movie. But the more time I spent thinking about the film the more negative my opinions on it became. I have now concluded that the movie is as bad as the star wars prequels (most of them at least, episode 1 is probably still worse).
The biggest problems I had with the Star wars prequels are all of the plotholes and the stupid story. I know others also hate on them for having too much CGI but I think that's a fairly subjective opinion and I personally wasn't too bothered by it. For me the real problems were the characters and the plot. And in my opinion, the force awakens is just as bad in this regard. Here are just some examples of what I am talking about:
-The republic forms the resistance to combat the first order. But why? Can't the republic just fight the order as the republic? And speaking of the republic, how does it even work? Is General Leia in control of it? Is it a democracy? And what about the first order? How powerful is this new empire? How do the politics in this world work? At least during the star wars prequels I understood the context in which all of the fighting was taking place. In this one I have no real clue.
-Rey takes a giant dump on everything we know about the force by becoming a super powerful jedi that can fly spaceships and beat someone in a lightsaber duel with no prior training and experience whatsoever. It appears that now being a good jedi has nothing to do with personal skill, just having the force turns you into superman! It took Luke Skywalker 3 movies to defeat Darth Vader, but Rey defeats Kylo in her first fight and nearly kills him. But then again, Kylo isn't actually as big a badass as Darth Vader, brings brings us to the next point...
-The new bad guy is pathetic. The actor playing him looks completely out of place and doesn't fit this role at all. He looks like he belongs in a teenage comedy. The actual character also acts more like a spoiled and a whiny brat rather than as an actual badass. The moment he took of his mask I could no longer take him seriously.
-Lots of pointless fan service. For no reason.
-The Starkiller base is extremely stupid. They could not come up with an original threat so they just created a new version of the Death star that is like 100x bigger (because the old death star was so small right?). In the original movies, the construction of the death star was hailed as a massive accomplishment. And that was in-spite of the fact that the empire had a whole galaxy worth of resources to build it with. How was the first order which is suppose to be merely a shadow of the old empire able to build something that is dozens of times bigger than the death star? This is a giant plothole so obvious it's painful. Oh! And it appears that they learned NOTHING from the first 2 death stars, because of course the good guys just need to destroy a single weak spot to kill it. Because screw being creative.
-How did Han Solo find the main characters so quickly after they left the planet? They just so happened to be nearby? The fact the Falcon had a tracking device on it doesn't explain how they could show up so quickly.
Those are just examples of SOME of the dumb things in this film.
The single most common excuse I hear for this film is that it's fun as an action film. But can't you also say that about the prequels? I honestly think the only reason people are saying this movie is way better than the prequels is because hating on the prequels has become a fad, "Oh yea, at least it isn't as bad as the prequels hurr dur".
Well, it really isn't much better honestly. I would even go as far as to say that episode 3 is better.
Do you share my sentiment?
