10 Reasons Why Star Wars: The Force Awakens Can’t Top The Original Trilogy

The reviews are in and the critics seem to agree: Star Wars: The Force Awakens has overcome the most dreaded hurdle and has quite easily managed to outdo the prequels. It's time to breathe a sigh of relief, as J.J. Abrams has given audiences their first good Star Wars movie since 1983. While The Force Awakens is impressive for many reasons - its on-form cast and their palpable chemistry, the beautifully worn lived-in look of the universe, a sense of humor that never fails to hit the mark - it's also undoubtedly flawed. While the film's high Rotten Tomatoes score suggests a near-masterpiece, remember that Revenge of the Sith - now frequently derided by critics with hindsight - also has a high score of 79%. That's not to suggest that Star Wars: The Force Awakens is anywhere near as flawed as Sith, or the prequels in general. Episode VII is quite easily the fourth-best film in the entire franchise; meaning it outpaces Episodes I-III, even if it doesn't quite have what it takes to compete with the original trilogy. So, with that in mind, join us as we take a look at 10 reasons why Episode VII can't top the films that started it all. And of course, major spoilers will follow, so if you don't want some of the key story points revealed prior to seeing the movie, go catch it and then come back and read our article. 10) The Over-Familiarity Of The Story One thing we can be thankful for regarding J.J. Abrams coming on board Episode VII is that he brings his innate understanding of what fans love about Star Wars. His major contribution to making The Force Awakens such a delight is recognizing the magic of the original trilogy, then somehow bottling it and applying it to the new movie. Unfortunately, it's evidently not just the tone of the original trilogy that Abrams was seeking to repeat with The Force Awakens. The plot and characters are familiar - the good 'Resistance' versus the bad 'First Order,' conflicted masked villain and his even more evil master, droid on the run with a Macguffin, giant planet-killing space station, young dreamer abandoned on a desert planet who might just be The One - so much so that Episode VII is occasionally in danger of just feeling lazily derivative. 9) The Plot Holes And Inconsistencies Of course, Star Wars has always been full of holes - which blockbuster franchise isn't? If it's not the Empire inexplicably holding fire on R2-D2 and C3-P0's escape pod in A New Hope, it's The Empire Strikes Back having a seriously messed-up timeline (watch it again - apparently, Yoda only needs a few days to train Luke in the ways of the Force). The Force Awakens is particularly hole-y, however. Seriously, we're talking prequel-levels, here. You also have logical inconsistencies, like - to name but one example - Finn breaking down over the sight of a dead stormtrooper, before minutes later giddily blasting through a whole platoon of them in order to escape the First Order. Sadly, it seems J.J. Abrams can't escape his propensity for illogical and occasionally baffling storytelling. 8) The Many, Many Unanswered Questions Watch the movie, then watch the trailers and read the interviews again - there is a surprising amount of footage, dialogue and story that didn't make it into the final cut. It's obvious from this comparison alone that Star Wars: The Force Awakens was trimmed considerably in the edit (where the hell is Constable Zuvio?). But just watching the film without prior knowledge of the trailers, it's clear that there's quite a bit missing, mostly in terms of backstory. We never find out what the relationship between Han and Maz Kanata is, nor what happened between Han, Leia and their son, nor how Maz got hold of Luke's old lightsaber, nor how the First Order rose from the ashes of the Empire. We also don't discover who Lor San Tekka is, nor where Han and Chewie got their new ship, nor who the Knights of Ren are. Such unanswered questions mean the universe we're returning to feels only partially established. J.J. Abrams likes his 'mystery box' approach, but even if the obfuscation is intentional, it's still extremely frustrating. 7) The Ill-Defined Antagonists Even when they were at their most evil, you kind of understood what the Empire was all about. Darth Vader, the Emperor, their snooty, superior officers: these guys stood for the Establishment, while the Rebels represented the counterculture, the freedom-seekers trying to stick it to the authoritarian system. Conversely, what exactly the First Order stands for in Episode VII is unclear. There's a sense of hero worship from Kylo Ren for Darth Vader, and obviously Supreme Leader Snoke is some kind of Sith overlord seeking to spread the dark side throughout the galaxy. But the First Order itself is ill-defined. It followed on from the Empire, but why? What are its ideals and objectives? The uncertain intentions of the main antagonists makes them just that little bit weak, even if Adam Driver, Domhnall Gleeson and Andy Serkis are individually great as the First Order bosses. 6) The Overstuffed Narrative One of the best things about the original trilogy is that the films are beautifully simple. The storytelling is elegant, streamlined and fat-free, even if that means you have to put up with the occasional plot hole. The prequels are similarly light themselves, though that could have more to do with the fact that there's hardly any story to justify them existing in the first place. Seriously, what is the point in you, Attack of the Clones? The Force Awakens is different. In retaining old characters and introducing a great many new ones, as well as continuing the story of the original trilogy while starting a whole new chapter in the saga, the film is left feeling somewhat overstuffed. Obviously Abrams did need that extra bit of time he wanted to polish the script that Disney refused to give him. It might have helped to let the new movie breathe a little more at least. 5) The Muddled And Underwhelming Third Act After an impressive, exhilarating hour-and-a-half, The Force Awakens loses its footing somewhat for the third act. It's supposed to be the climax to wrap everything up - the relationship between Kylo Ren and Han Solo, the Resistance and the threat of Starkiller Base, Finn and Rey's difficult individual backgrounds - but instead it all just ends up feeling a bit muddled. The battle of Starkiller Base becomes almost an afterthought, as the film gives short shrift to the X-Wing assault and focuses on what's going on between Kylo, Rey, Finn and Han, none of whom really have their stories satisfyingly sewn up. It's all rather underwhelming (the less said about Mark Hamill's quasi-appearance the better), while one of the aforementioned characters leaves the film in a particularly unsatisfying way. 4) The Unceremonious Death Of The Well-Loved Character If you've got this far, you probably aren't in need of another spoiler alert. So let's get down to the big shock of Episode VII: Han Solo's death at the hands of his son, Kylo Ren. This is a huge moment, especially as Harrison Ford plays such a surprisingly big part in the film (the biggest out of any of the returning cast members). It should be an easy winner, the most emotionally affecting moment in the movie. Regrettably, though, it barely registers. It doesn't help that Han's death comes in the midst of a crucial battle for the Resistance's survival. But the entire moment feels rushed regardless, as though Abrams and co-screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan wanted to get the scene out of the way, rather than giving Han his day in the sun. The death of the father - not to mention the best-loved character of the franchise - at the hands of the son should feel almost operatically dramatic. Instead, it's a giant damp squib. 3) The Frequent Callbacks To The Past It's not just the over-familiarity of the plot that bothers in The Force Awakens - there are so many winks and nods to the original trilogy that Episode VII sometimes feels less like its own movie, and more like a tribute made by a fan who's been given the directorial reins. Which is literally the case - J.J. Abrams has been a huge Star Wars fan since a kid. The problem is that Abrams allows the can't-believe-his-luck child within him to take over much too often, making visual references and repeating quotes wholesale from the original trilogy. Abrams brings enough original content to The Force Awakens to make it feel like its own beast, but far too frequently does Episode VII shoehorn old bits and pieces into the story just for the sake of geeking out. 2) The Uneasy CGI One thing immediately noticeable about Episode VII is how much time and money was spent on the practical effects (at times there's almost too much going on). Perhaps because the in-camera effects are so special, the impact of the use of CGI is diminished somewhat, especially in the moments when it all goes a bit prequel-y. It's in the third act (which feels rushed anyway) in particular that the CGI becomes noticeably weaker. The attack on Starkiller Base just doesn't have the level of detail or care that the rest of the film does, so the computer FX appear only partly-finished. That said, even the CGI in the rest of the movie has an uneasy time meshing with the heavily practical environments. 1) The Unmemorable Score John Williams has been one of the great movie composers of all-time. Arguably, no one has been able to top Williams at his best, especially in his heyday of the 70s, 80s and 90s, when his work with the likes of Spielberg and Lucas bore such ample fruit. But that was then; it's 2015 now, and Williams hasn't created a truly great original score in some time. Disregarding the cues from the original trilogy (those old themes of Williams' are still dynamite), there's hardly anything memorable about the music in The Force Awakens. It's understandable that Abrams would bring Williams back to score Episode VII - there really is no modern equivalent - but there's no denying that Williams, now aged 83, just doesn't have that creative spark that he once had.