This is no monumental artistic work, but a science-fiction movie done more snappily than most, including its own predecessors. A chocolate bar is a marvelous sweet that does not need to pretend to be a chocolate soufflé musical comedies are wonderful entertainment without trying to compete with opera blue jeans are a perfect garment that shouldn't be compared with haute couture. There are times when you would much rather have a really good hot dog than any steak, but you can still recognize that one is junk food and the other isn't. "The Force Awakens" has no plot structure, no character studies let alone character development, no emotional or philosophical point to make. It has no original vision of the future, which is depicted as a pastiche of other junk-culture formulae, such as the western, the costume epic and the World War II movie.
Its specialty is "special effects" or visual tricks, some of which are playful, imaginative and impressive, but others of which have become space-movie clichés.īut the total effect is fast and attractive and occasionally amusing. Like a good hot dog, that's something of an achievement in a field where unpalatable junk is the rule. In this film, as in "Star Wars," a trio of nice, average-looking young people is pursued by a sinister figure in black mask and cloak. Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, Harrison Ford as Han Solo and Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia all return.