Watched it again yesterday at home. My basic thoughts.
- Still way better than any of the prequels simply for the base level that moment to moment in REGULAR scenes, not ones where 2-57 characters are dick waving a lightsaber around, the movie more or less works quite well. The funny scenes are funny. The touching scenes are touching. Harrison Ford is the best he has been in like two damn decades.
The dialogue scenes with the characters basically all work well whereas in the prequels I think three complete
movies there was *ONE* fucking scene without a lightsaber or pod racer involved that worked well and that was the Palpatine-Anakin scene in the opera house.
Downsides ....
I honestly don't think they will ever top the OT. The OT is simply too good, too groundbreaking, too meaningful, too original to ever be topped.
Think about it. How do you make a better villian than Darth Vader? And even the OT topped Darth Vader with the freaking Emperor who was even scarier. How do you create a new character better than Yoda? Han Solo? Can you have a more natural romance that actually works well like Han and Leia? Nope. Can you top the Vader is Luke's father twist? I don't think so.
All you can do is keep adding weirder lightsaber types and repeating the "character XYZ has turned to the Dark Side! Oh noes!".
Will you ever have a Star Wars film with a scene as beautiful and meaningful to REAL life (again not special effects dick waving) as this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YkbgvRMpW0
IMO ... I think the answer is no.
Disney's Star Wars films I'm sure will be a "well made" and relatively "safe", much in the way their Marvel films are enjoyable, but I think what TFA has really done for me is to really appreciate the greatness of the OT even moreso.
Yes some of the effects are dated, yes the Ewoks were a bit silly, but that aside, the Star Wars OT saga is just too great to be beaten.
The Force Awakens was kinda like the quality level of a good Harry Potter movie. That's decent, and better than the prequels, but the OT Star Wars is on another level.
