One problem: The Hobbit movies are actually considerably different than The Lord of The Rings. For example, The Hobbit movies are character-driven while The Lord of The Rings movies aren't. Furthermore, The Force Awakens is actually derivative of all 3 entries in the original trilogy and even the prequels a little. Compare Rey leaving Kylo Ren to Obi-Wan leaving Anakin.
Oh, please, tell me more about how your flawed interpretation is somehow better, without providing any base (not that it could be provided given that all of this is just a matter of opinion), than my own.
Now let's go step by step:
- I never wrote that The Hobbit movies weren't different than TLOTR, I mentioned the similarities. If you didn't see any similarities, well, I don't really know what to say.
- I would never have called one giant battle sequence (which is what the third Hobbit movie basically is) a "character driven" piece, but, hey, it's also your prerogative if you want to call one third of a children's book that way.
- Oh, I'm well aware that everything in the Force Awakens is a rehash of something that happened before (you're not doing the movie any favors by pointing that out, btw). But reviews can only be 400 words long so I wasn't going to bother with the minutiae. The basic plot structure is that of A New Hope.
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I liked this movie better when it was called Star Wars (or Episode IV, or A New Hope)
This movie is Star Wars all over again. It's almost astonishing the effort they made to hit exactly all of the same beats, only having them spread around different characters (and sometimes even by the same characters, or their expies).
And, just like The Hobbit movies in comparison with The Lord of the Rings movies, the similarities don't make Episode IV more resonant; they just take away from its impact.
That said, I wouldn't call it a bad movie outright. I have liked more Star Wars movies than I have disliked so, even if I went into this one with low expectations, the odds were still in its favor.
It mostly delivered; for all the self-plagiarism, A New Hope is an entertaining movie, so this one was bound to not drag on either. The obvious advances in technology also make for an all around sleeker and more visually arresting movie. Not to mention that Abrams is a better director than Lucas ever was, that helps.
One thing I can definitely praise this movie on its own right is the lead performances. Both Ridley and Boyega are talented and will probably go far. Driver was decent and I wish I could've seen more of Isaac, but he already has several awesome movies under his belt to soften the blow.
Anyways, all in all it's a serviceable movie I'm sure I could've enjoyed a lot more had I not seen all of the others so I assume it does a great job of introducing new people into the series, which was probably the real goal anyway.
I'd lump it together with Return of the Jedi and Revenge of the Sith, behind Empire Strikes Back and A New Hope. Now I can only hope Episode VIII doesn't end up being "The First Order Strikes Back" because Episode V is the only Star Wars movie I have in my personal list of "greatest movies", it'd be somewhat of a shame to just remake it.