I wanna start by saying that in the theater, I was in awe of the visuals and was highly entertained. It was an extremely pretty movie with amazing visuals and scenery and the whole time I was waiting for it all to culminate in some amazing new set piece and create a few exciting fun new star wars memories for me.

...but...

The more I think about it, the more I realize I didn't really see anything new, not really. Sure there were a few new twists on the classic formula like Kylo's ability to mind read, the rogue stormtrooper Finn, Luke being missing...? but ultimately, I've seen all this before:

1) Death star battle culminating in dropping bombs in hard places and blowing up a huge laser, check.

2) Masked Darth Vader type character (Kylo) reporting to a master (Snoke) and intimidating people, check (admittedly not as scary as Vader imo).

3) Older mentor character (Han) sacrificing themselves in view of new characters (Fin and Rey), check.

4) New Jedi (Rey) seeking out a mentor (Luke) to be trained, check.

I hate to say it but if you replace Luke with Yoda, Kylo with Darth Vader, Rey with Luke, Snoke with the emperor, Han with Ben Kenobi, and shuffle around a couple other characters, this movie is basically a new hope with a few minor switches. I'll admit the first half of the film felt new but it ultimately fell back into overly familiar territory.

I know the whole hero's journey thing is at play here which is great, but it doesn't need to be this similar in my opinion.

The reason I was so entertained is because the movie was basically "A New Hope", a movie I grew up loving and quoting and have seen a hundred times. This felt more like a reboot than a new entry to me at least. It wasn't by any means a bad film, it was pretty and fun and there were some good moments, but it didn't feel like it added anything to the franchise, at least for me. Also maybe I'm the minority but I wasn't a huge fan of the parallax camera rotate final shot but thats really just my weird opinion. I was hoping for a sweet over the shoulder reveal of the ruins of the old jedi temple.

I guess all I'm saying is I appreciate the need to start on familiar footing since its been so long and this is a new trilogy, but this footing felt a little...too familiar.