Episode VII (spoilers)

[Anomalocaris]

I saw this movie a couple of days ago...
Nice entertainment value...
Nice SFX...
The story... well... too reminiscent of star wars, the original movie, which was later called "episode IV":
- Droid lost in desert planet holding some important piece of information
- Droid found by person who has some connection with the Force, but is unaware of it.
- Person and droid go off-planet to join the rebellion
- Big bad guys have a super-weapon which "is no moon".
- Newly found friend of main person get killed by main antagonist. (What is it with all the gaping chasms in Star Wars? I wouldn't be caught dead on that flimsy walkway - not even a measly safety handrail...)
- Rebels manage to destroy said weapon with a handful of X-wings. (seriously, I was expecting such a planet-sized battle station to have more than 10 tie fighters, when they are ALL requested to engage the enemy).


Apart from that, I really liked the actress playing Rey.
And the passion and dedication in Finn were spot on!


On the other hand... how the heck does that hologram guy get to be in charge of the galactic empire's remnants?! And, just out of luck, he gets to "seduce" the new impressionable kid, who's probably the second most powerful Force user in the Galaxy?
"always two there are, a master and an apprentice", I know... but these seem to have showed up right after the previous two got busted! Come one! Some consistency! Where do they get so many dark Force experts from?!

I think the Finn character was totally unbelievable from the moment he appeared on screen.  He is suppose to have been snatched from his family as an infant or very young child, and raised in a brutal, merciless camp geared to produce efficient, merciless, regimented killers.  He is suppose to be the incarnation of the ancient Spartan warrior.   It is not credible that people like that would abandon their entire upbringing, find their conscience the first time they are told to actually do what they have been trained for a life time to do.  Experience shock and hesitation during first battle, perhaps.  Not find his conscience so quickly.  It is also not credible such a person would have any conventional social skills or would fit easily into any society other than the cohorts with whom he was raised and trained.  The story of Fin in TFA is childish, no, infantile, character development for a movie perhaps not consciously meant for infants.  John Boyega might have some acting talent, but it is not as a trained killer without any context to socialize with anyone outside his unit, finding his conscience or not.

The Rey character was slightly less unbelievable at the start, up to the point she took off in an half crewed millennium falcon.   She had been a scavenger eking out the barest of living on a god forsaken outback planet since maybe 6 or 8 years old. It would be out of character for her to have experience flying spaceships.  In fact, it would be in character for her to have never even been in a working spaceship since 6-8 years old.  If she had the opportunity to practice flying spaceships, she could probably find a better living than trudging through desert and rappelling off wrecked star destroyers scavenging small scrap for a quarter portion of a shrink wrapped meal each.   Yes, she maybe familiar with the layout of the inside of a wrecked star destroyer.  It is one thing to know the way.  It is another to pilot a high performance, Nonstandard spaceship she has never flown before, having in all likelihood never flown any sort of spaceship before, as fast as the beat up ship would go through a maze chased by a higher performance fighter craft.  Also, As a scavenger, she may know which parts goes where in some parts of some spaceship, mainly from ripping them out to sell them as scrap.  It is hardly plausible she should know how to actually keep them running, especially in an emergency, and how to conduct emergency repairs.  That's not what scavengers do.   The only thing she should credible be able to repair is her beat up smoke belching speeder.   From there on, the unbelievability only skyrockets, and the least unbelievable part from then on is the trippy dream sequence upon touching the light saber.  That's saying something.  I like Daisy Ridley's acting too.   She is unaffected and takes the role seriously, and she seems to be not without talent.  That makes her the best actor/actress to have yet appeared in a core role in any of the Star Wars movies, Harrison ford included.   But even her acting could hardly distract from the smug Mary Sue implausibility of her character starting from "garbage it is".