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movie review - Star Wars: Episode VII

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

How better to spend X'mas eve than with a slick continuation of a movie from your childhood? In which your favorite character dies for no reason, the most iconic hero of the 20th Century is reduced to a petulant cripple, and the plot is a mess. The main arc of the story appears to be a poorly-thought-through "descent into evil" thing that simultaneously wanders down the same road that this movie series has failed previously and wastes the talents of the actor. As always with Star Wars, there's a second plot to keep most of the characters busy and while some great new characters are introduced for this most of the fun comes from the action and the rest feels like we're neither going to learn more about the setting of all these movies, nor are we going to have a coherent trilogy. I already see problems with for instance the differentiation of the characters. Everyone immediately becomes friends are harmoniously aligned. One doesn't even get a sense of the challenges the characters face -- how will they change during this new sequence of three movies? I've got a bad feeling about this. Even by the series of Star Wars, this thing is a mess*.

Not recommended.

*Note added in 2023; at this point, I still hadn't seen "Solo" or Episode VIII. This movie began the end of Star Wars movies for me.