Star Wars, not sure what episode, was a masterful hearkening back to the very first in the franchise. But that was exactly what it was––not much more than a rehash. Very nicely done and yes, nostalgia inducing, but there was no single scene that got my pulse racing. There was a nice mention of "air strikes," as close as they probably dared get to the topic-du-jour of drones in rebel areas, and of course the concept of blasting whole planets to smithereens (both sides do it in this episode) reeks a bit of justice from above. The Nazi-lite Dark Side (First Order) is still the enemy, the wise old alien is now orange and runs an Ayuthaya canteen (no utterances in odd grammatical contortions, give does she).
I am somewhat sympathetic to what JJ Abrams* was up against corporate expectation-wise and applaud him for his low-fi, humorous way of defusing the inevitable CG bombs. But yeah, pulse remained about zero throughout, especially as we were taken from one cosmic coincidence to another.** I have been hashing out some sci-fi explorations (EVEN) in the literary realm and I tell you, the future looks nothing like this. I was gratified to see that the species-diverse Canteen band had a tribal flute player.*
SEO Alert - Damon Shulenberger (aka Endurancewriter) of planet Frimwok, where Bandito College doth lie.
* Lost and Super 8 were nicely envisioned.
** Light speed is the planetary system equivalent of James Bond shifts to exotic espionage sets across the globe, where expensive cars get crashed. Somehow, if you are alone in a dark forest, you will be located immediately (when the music reaches its pulsing crescendo).