Good to see objective, unbiased reportage is alive & well in the Star Wars universe.
*Chuckles quietly to self*
Tell me about it!
The badness of the prequels has been done to death at this point but they still seem to find supporters among the Star Wars crowd, much to the chagrin of cinephiles like myself. Although to be fair to the Star Wars crowd they aren't really looking at them as movies, but rather as additions to their universe. I think this is the real source of a lot of the hostility towards TFA - it's less about lightsaber guards and more about the fact that Disney and Abrams wiped that universe away to make room for their vision.
The movie actually referenced not only the first Star Wars but also Empire Strikes and Return Jedi. We had our protagonist learning of the force through a vision (like Empire), learning about the force by meeting a tiny alien who has a lot of experience and wisdom (like Empire), the Death Star is protected by a shield that must be taken down by a ground team (like Jedi), our protagnist must escape from the base as it being destroyed by the rebels (like Jedi), and we finish with the one of our main characters out of action, possibly gone for good (like Empire).
It definitely was rehash of old material. But it did a great job of it and, to be fair to Disney, the couldn't afford to take chances with this after the money they'd thrown at it.
