In the end, I liked it enough to see it twice, in part (though) because I just wanted some more popcorn. I really, really hope this movie acts more as a setup for episode VIII than a simple stand-alone film – if I’m going to sit through a rehashed plot, then the payoff had better be worth it, or I might [gulp] have to skip episode IX.

Again, hitting the novels (and a bit in the Clone Wars animated show), there are safe “thruways” in hyperspace. These have been mapped out and are used routinely, but not all of the galaxy has been mapped; even stars within the known areas are not explored for these thruways. There might be some kind of dark object in between that may cause you to be floating home. This is similar to what scouts do in Traveller. Again, causal won’t get it.

As for space being meaningless, all of Star Wars has hyperspace making travel a short trip to the market. That’s just the way it is.

I hated Starkiller Base, another rehash of the Death Star. And they all have stupid weaknesses. I actually disliked reusing the Death Star in Jedi. I want new imagination, not the newer, bigger same thing over and over. The old Expanded Universe was full of them: Death Star III, Prototype Death Star, and the silly Sun Crusher, a small ship that could destroy stars. made by the Death Star designers on their own. Lame.

BTW: Anakin Sywaler was originally going to appear in the melted mask scene as a force ghost, but it was cut out early, although I have seen the pre-production artwork for his look. Kind of a mix of Hayden Christiansen and old Vader without the helmet on (scars, etc.). I wonder why the force ghost was evil?

I remember when I first saw Star Wars. My parents couldn’t understand why I liked it so much, because to them it was just like a souped up RKO serial. Fandom seems to have an insatiable appetite for viewing and reading thinly disguised palimpsests of material it is already long since familiar with. In that respect I guess it harkens back to the earliest real world myth cycles, stories worked and reworked, embellished and tailored to whoever the audience was this week.

The biggest complaint of the prequel films (other than the acting) was that they weren’t Star Wars-y enough. well, you can’t say that about a film that recycles so many characters, plots, shots and locations. Force Awakens certainly *is* Star Wars, to an almost slavish degree. You can just imagine the script meeting where they wrote down EXACTLY what made Star Wars Star Wars and replicated it.

But with love.

And with just enough promise from the excellent new cast that I desperately want to see where the story goes next.