Synthetic

Re-watched the Force Awakens twice yesterday....The more I go back to this film, the less I am impressed with it. Each scene is very nostalgia heavy, and the film does a terrific job paying tribute to what Star Wars is about all in image. One could write a book demonstrating it scene by scene what the film is calling back to in the classic movies. 

However, as beautiful as a film is, it don't make up for lack of storytelling. Essentially it's a New Hope 2.0 in it's framework and Abrams and company played this VERY safe. Why does the Empire still exist 40 years ago blowing up the death star and killing Vader and the Emperor? Why do the rebels still act (and look) like a rag tag team of partisans opposing the bigger established system? If anything, the rebels should be the ones in power now and whatever is left of the Empire should be scattered and weak. 

After further thought on this, I wish they would have went with more original EU material to make up a story. Timothy Zahn's book and the character of Thrawn alone, could have inspired a much better film.