I thought Star Wars was a fantastic movie. The first time I saw it. Almost 40 years ago. But this unimaginative, formulaic remake doesn’t really cut it. The first sign of trouble was the opening text crawl. The Empire is now the First Order and the Rebel Alliance is now the Resistance. Wait! What the hell? I know it’s supposed to be a 30 year time jump, but at the end of Return of the Jedi, the Rebels had destroyed the second Death Star, the Emperor was dead, and the teddy bears were using stormtrooper helmets as drum kits. Now a renamed Empire is back in control? So apparently everything that happened in the original trilogy was a big waste of time because now we’re back to square one. We’ve even got Supreme Leader Snookie, err Snoke, seamlessly replacing Emperor Palpatine.

Yes, I know there is a big mass of Star Wars cannon attempting to explain all this away, but here’s the thing – I’m not going to buy novels and comic books and study supplemental material just to understand what’s going on. Providing all that information for the nerds to enjoy, and pay for, is fine, but a movie needs to stand on its own. If a movie can’t stand on its own, then that’s just bad writing. Continue reading →