**
Strange, in a francise that relies so heavily on its history, that this movie should regurgitate a whopping chunk of it -- the first film, Star Wars, from 1977 -- coming across more like the first theatrical Star Trek, a movie that impressed the hell out of itself with its own past glory. In galaxies far, far away, evidently, history does in fact repeat itself. This one has most of the old beloved characters along with several new ones, playing younger versions of the oldsters, running through a story that mirrors that of the original film. Had the Great Capitalist still been in charge, things would have been different; but he sold Lucasfilm to Disney, and Disney figured it knew almost as much about making money as Lucas -- proving it, actually, with this "film for the fans" and record box office returns. Is it any good? No -- maybe -- who knows? The only thing sure is that it is unnecessary and redundant and that there is still only one truly remarkable film in the entire franchise. No, not The Empire Strikes Back and not even A New Hope. Star Wars, a movie that was so fun, so unique, so imaginative, that it didn't need a prefabricated history (nor one back-grafted onto it) to thrill its audiences.
Strange, in a francise that relies so heavily on its history, that this movie should regurgitate a whopping chunk of it -- the first film, Star Wars, from 1977 -- coming across more like the first theatrical Star Trek, a movie that impressed the hell out of itself with its own past glory. In galaxies far, far away, evidently, history does in fact repeat itself. This one has most of the old beloved characters along with several new ones, playing younger versions of the oldsters, running through a story that mirrors that of the original film. Had the Great Capitalist still been in charge, things would have been different; but he sold Lucasfilm to Disney, and Disney figured it knew almost as much about making money as Lucas -- proving it, actually, with this "film for the fans" and record box office returns. Is it any good? No -- maybe -- who knows? The only thing sure is that it is unnecessary and redundant and that there is still only one truly remarkable film in the entire franchise. No, not The Empire Strikes Back and not even A New Hope. Star Wars, a movie that was so fun, so unique, so imaginative, that it didn't need a prefabricated history (nor one back-grafted onto it) to thrill its audiences.