6) The Plot Of The Original Trilogy Is Being Repeated All Over Again
As Star Wars is a saga about a family, The Force Awakens is smartly playing up the concept of legacy and of what’s going on with the Skywalker clan down the generations. This idea of Episode VII acting as an echo of previous films is a compelling one. However, did Abrams have to repeat the plot of the original trilogy so stringently?
Like Lucas’ original trio of movies, there is in The Force Awakens an evil Empire (renamed The First Order, but it has the same hardware), and an all-powerful black-clad villain and his shadowy master, facing off against three variously plucky and unassuming young folk, one of whom secretly has Jedi powers, and a wise old master apparently waiting in the wings (Luke Skywalker).
None of this is to say Episode VII won’t have original features of its own, but some of the core plot disappointingly just seems like they took the New Hope template and ran with that.