Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review - The Best Disappointing Movie Ever

It Rhymes, All Of It

So, what's wrong? Why is this enjoyable film ultimately a disappointment? Well, the hype, obviously (I had unreasonable expectations with the mere mention of Episode VII), but there are regrettably some filmmaking issues here too.

In many ways the film's biggest strengths are also the cause of its key irritations. We move at a relentless pace, jumping from planet to spaceship to planet, but that means there's no real time to actually get to know the characters outside of running, which comes to a confused head at the end of the second act when bigger threats are randomly established. This is only exacerbated by the sheer amount of backstory and continuity connections that need to be made - every element of the new status quo needs to be linked back to the original trilogy.

There's a sense the film is rushing to avoid boredom setting in, as if it doesn't have full confidence in itself to hold audience's attention. There's also a bevy of unanswered questions - some pretty essential to the whole plot - that are obnoxiously skirted over (perhaps Marvel-esque set-up for Episode VIII, although that doesn't make them any less irritating) and leave the film feeling less complete than its parallel trilogy openers.

And that whole idea of parallels is the reason why those pacing issues, that may have crippled another franchise reboot, simply don't matter all that much. Star Wars rhymes; Anakin's journey mirrored Luke's and the story of the sequels will invariably go in a similar direction. The Force Awakens is, then, very A New Hope, right down to basic narrative structure - forget the planet-destroying weapon, there's even another cantina scene - and while that may seem lazy to those uninitiated with the greater depths of Star Wars geekdom, it's something intrinsic to the franchise that builds this operatic style of storytelling and makes any narrative hiccups feel more like problems with translation than inherent flaws.

Lawrence Kasdan, the film's screenwriter (who also provided scripts for The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi), recently stated that Star Wars is a genre in and of itself; something so unique and obliquely defined it's its own thing independent of sci-fi or fantasy. I thought he was being a bit crazy at the time, but seeing his latest movie I would actually go one step further though; Star Wars is a movie franchise that operates independent of cinema. Its inspirations are a mesh of the pulpy and the operatic, its themes simple yet grand and its cultural influence so seismic it transcends conventional assessment.

The Force Awakens as a movie isn't perfect. But as an experience, nothing else compares. Star Wars is back.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is in UK cinemas now and US cinemas from 18th December.