Star Wars Episode VII: Star Wars Episode IV Again?

*WARNING: SPOILERS*

I take my seat in the theater and adjust my Yoda hat. After religiously avoiding spoilers, watching all the trailers and getting excited beyond all reason, I sat in my seat greatly anticipating the next installment of the Star Wars saga: Star Wars Episode VII.

The music starts and everyone cheers, myself included. I am a huge Star Wars fan, but then again, who isn't? Many people were excited to see this movie and desperately hoped it would live up to the hype that was built around it. What would this new adventure entail? What are the original ideas and new plot?

Look--it's Luke! I mean Rey...

So, the movie started with a leader of some kind of rebellion giving secret information to a droid while an evil empire of some sort comes in with their masked leader who is dressed in all black to capture said leader in an effort to find the information. The droid escapes with the information on some kind of desert planet where it comes across a wide-eyed youth who is force-sensitive. This youth meets a wise, old mentor who has a dark past with the antagonist and is killed all while there's a battle to destroy a giant planet-annihilating ball, which is about to fire on the headquarters of the rebellion... I think I've seen this before...

*bolded words above emphasize the similarities between the two films.

Star Wars Episode VII was not a bad movie. It was decent--just decent. So did it live up to the hype? In my opinion, it did not. Let's start with the positives:

• The Cinematography: Dan Mindel, Star Wars Episode VII cinematographer, deserves an award. His work is amazing. The shots and style of shots was fast-paced and immersive.
• The Special Effects: The combination of practical and CG effects successfully gave us that classic Jurassic Park feel. It tricked the eye and allowed us to believe what we were seeing. With that, the integration did not feel awkward or forced.
• The Set: The backgrounds and set work was clearly high budget and it shows. They have fantastical and beautiful locations. They really give a scale to the universe in which the story is set.
• The Music: John Williams is a great composer. The music was a combination of both familiar and new sounds. This allowed for a new and exciting score, which highlighted the new characters and made the Star Wars universe feel new again, while still tying the film to its roots and giving fans a recognizable treat.

Now the negatives:

• The Story: We've seen all of this before. The story-line lacks in originality and falls flat. There weren't new plot elements presented that weren't recycled and regurgitated from previous Star Wars films. This was the most egregious sin the movie commits because Star Wars has always been marked by its originality. So for me, this felt like a huge step backward.



And it's Darth Vader! I mean Kylo Ren...

• The Characters: Many characters were not given distinctive personalities and, if they were, they felt forced and stereotypical. It was difficult to believe that these characters could feasibly exist, which made watching them feel more like watching actors playing roles.  Pretty cheesy if you ask me.  And not the good kind of cheesy either.

So the major problem of the film is that the characters and story (both misses in this case) make up the movie and everything else is adjunct to these aspects. I would put this film in the same category of Avatar: It's a pretty movie with a lot to look at and admire, but the characters and story were not interesting enough to make it a true masterpiece.

Story: 40, Characters: 67, Effects: 96, Music: 93, Overall Quality: 80. 

Average: 75.2, Recommendation: Buy

Logan Christensen

(Pragmus Alpha)

CEO of Pragmus Media