Just watched Force Awakens, and don't see how it is 2.2 points higher

Because TFA is exactly what it needed to be.

The prequals are *beep* terrible.
TFA deserves its rating, the prequals are rated too High. They should be around 2-4/10.

tfa is a 4/10 which is about the same as attack of the clones but lower than the other 5 star wars movies

I agree. The TFA was good but it wasn't Better than TPM. TPM had a way better lightsaber battle. Plus, the ending was amazing and had way more going on. People hate jar jar but in my opinion, he was a thousand times better than plasma who was only included to sell action figures and create publicity.

TPM was great.

TFA was awful.

IMHO

The Force Awakens spits on everything the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy established about the Star Wars universe. Lets ignore for a moment the redicilously similar plot to New Hope. After everything we saw in Return OF The Jedi and the other eps of the original trilogy are the fans really satisfied with the way the original protagoinsts were shown?? Luke who in New Hope and Empire Strikes Back was frustrated about the fact that so many secrets were hidden from him and who in Return Of The Jedi risks everything to redeem his father, a father with whom he never grew up with, who ordered the death of his aunt and uncle and who was the 2nd in command of a Tyranical Empire all because he is his father and he knows deep down that there is good in him is in Force Awakens a coward that abandons his sister and best friend at their time of need! And dont listen to people saying that Yoda and Obi-Wan did the same! NO! These 2 had many more years of war under their belt, they survived the massacre of all their friends and comrades, were betrayed by those they fought and bled in the battlefield with, one of them had to battle his brother to the death and they saw everything they tried to protect in ruins not to mention that they became the Galaxys Most Wanted and were serverly outnumbered. In TFA the Republic exists and the FO are the outlaws! Han who became a respected general of the Rebel Alliance, who was willing to die rather than going back on being a criminal and who loved his starship so much ends up being a smuggler again, dealing with criminals and somehow loses his ship! This is the guy that was frightened at the thought of the Millenium Falcon being destroyed somehow manages to lose it! And Leia. Leia was originally a Rebel and a diplomat. She has been in the front lines and she knows war. So why is she leading a group of Outlaws? The term resistance means that there is resistance against an evil that is the ruler of the Galaxy. But that is not the case here. The Republic is back. I would have expected Leia to act as a senator and help repair the damage the Empire did to the Galaxy in order to ensure that the Empire will never again rise. Or her being a military leader working with the Republic Army on rooting out the remnants of the Empire. Plus she is Force Sensitive like her brother. Why not have her being a Jedi?

Oh i am not done. I am going full throttle here. I talked about the characters of the original trilogy. Lets talk about the new characters.Lets start with Rey. She is one of the most illogically overpowered characters i have ever seen. In real life and in the Star Wars universe we know that experience and skill are things that are obtained through hard work and training. We know that just cause someone has a strong connection with the Force doesnt mean that he/she is invincible or more powerful than all others [both Luke and Anakin thought that and they both lost a hand to people with more skill and experience than them at the time]. Yet here we see Rey a character who has never heard or used the Force in her life: a)Performing a Mind Trick b)Defeating an opponent who has clearly more experience and skill than her using a lightsaber [a weapon she has never used before and is completely different from the staff she knows how to use] and the Force that she has no idea how to use in battle something that her opponent knows how to do. And it doesnt stop there. Rey who has never piloted anything in her life somehow manages to pilot the Millenium Falcon. Now i have seen people stating that this is not something weird given how both Anakin and Luke piloted sucessfully space fighters. There is a huge difference. The Millenium Falcon is way more complex than a space fighter. The Millenium Falcon is a ship. Meaning that it cannot be piloted just by anyone. It needs a competent pilot. Plus Anakin in TPH never piloted his figther for that long [auto-pilot did most of the work] and in ANH Luke had already stated that he knew how to fly a fighter. But it gets worse. Rey not only manages to alone with zero experience fly the MF. She also manages to survive an aerial dog fight with 2 Tie Fighters! Not to mention that she apparently knows the MF better than Han Solo. And of course she is constantly shown superior to every male in the movie. I am not kidding. This is what happens. Now for Finn. Boy do i dislike his character. Our boy Finn is a soldier. Taken as a child and since then being trained to be a living killing machine. And that killing machine sees a comrade die and some civilians being executed and he deserts cause he is tired of the bloodshed. Lets say that we accept that. But then he joins the people he trained his whole life to kil and starts killing his former comrades. All it took was a pretty face. Yep that was all it took. Phasma. She is a waste of a good actress. After how tough that actress is shown to be in Game Of Thrones and given her rank in the FO i expected that she would be a great villain in TFA. But instead she is nothing but a self serving coward! No torture or pain required. All it takes is a single threat and then she immediately spills the beans on how to destroy the enemys major weapon. Lastly we have Kylo Ren. Now let me start with saying that Adam Driver didnt have the right appearance for the job. In a movie when you talk about a villain you expect that villain to have a certain appearance. An appearance that emits a vibe of evil and that lets you be at least a little intimidated by him/her. Yet here in Star Wars we have Adam Driver who doesnt have in my opinion the apperance of a villain. And the creators didnt even take the time to add something to make him look more villainous. Tattoos,scars,dark side corruption etc there are tons of effects they could have used to make actor look more villainous. But instead he is shown with a clear face and perfect hair. I literally started laughing when i saw him take the mask off. Back to the character. Kylo Ren in the beginning is shown to be a ruthless killer. A skilled warrior and a killer. He was trained by Luke, betrayed him and slaughtered his former comrades. A good villain so far. Yet in the middle of the movie when he takes the mask off and after he talks with Vaders helmet we are supposed to believe that there is conflict in him. Where is that conflict excactly? In the whole movie he kills people. He even contributes in the destruction of 5 FULLY INHABITED PLANETS. He just sits there and watches like he sees a movie. And in the end he gets his behind handed to him by an unskilled and untrained individual.

And now that the characters are off the table lets deal with the story. Explain to me please how does the First Order which is comprised by the remnants of the Empire an Empire that was left in shambles after its leadership got taken out, that lost nearly all of the support it once had [due to the deaths of Palpatine and Vader] and that is a terrorist organization wanted in all the Galaxy by all the liberated planetes that celebrated in ROTJ and many others manage to construct a BIGGER DEATH STAR??? The Republic was certainly rebuilt in the 30 year timeskip. And even if it wasnt there is no logical way the First Order could have built another Death Star. There is no way they could have found the resources or the manpower to build it. Plus its been 30 years. Are you telling me that after 30 years and Alderaan there still hasnt been created a defense against the Death Star? Not to mention that when these 5 planets blew up none of the Force sensitive individuals felt a thing. Heck Obi-Wan lost his balance by that disturbance. That multiplied by 5 and no one feels a thing.


So do you want to know why this movie is rated so highly? The reason is that people no longer care about quality. All it takes is a famous name,space battles and lightsabers. Plus the so called fans always complained about how the prequels were not similar to the original trilogy. Well i hope they are happy that after the immense hatred they thorugh on anyone involved in the prequels they now got their wish.Quality and good story telling no longer matter. The prequels had flaws but at the end of the day they told a good story. I harbor no ill feelings towards the actors/actresses of TFA. They did a good job and i wish them the best. My hatred is for the movie itself and the fictional characters in it.

I can't put my finger on it precisely, but TPM has certain qualities that really set it above TFA in many ways.

I was more pulled in by the hologram appearance of Sidious in the first two seconds at the beginning of TPM than anything Snoke blurted out in his scene. Likewise, with the henchman characters, Maul's arrival to the Star Wars universe with his hologram appearance accompanied by ominous music was excellent cinema; by contrast, Kylo Ren strolling down the plank was just film of a guy in costume walking. These little moments really matter, and once they fail to do much, it irreparably affects the entire experience of the film. That's how it was for me, anyway. Who that possesses hearing and loves Star Wars doesn't associate Vader with those three amazing notes that accompany his appearance on the Tantive IV? I think TFA is utterly lacking in these moments and they are indispensable IMO to Star Wars.

In addition, while the Plinkett reviews dismiss the dialog of the symbiosis theme of TPM as "dull monotonous drivel" or however they refer to it, I found it to be an engaging element of the film. You can see the symbiosis theme of the Force weaved throughout the film. No, it's not executed to perfection by any means, but I like that it does work to some degree. It might not be everybody's bag but as a sci fi guy, I liked it. I don't think there's anything like this in the entirety of TFA. But I've only seen the film once and since I really hated it, I haven't given it a fair overview so it may contain something to which this can be compared.

Some people might call these minor elements but that's subjective. They are important to me as a viewer. TFA didn't sell these elements to me immediately, but TPM did. It made you see why the dark side was feared while still being a pretty family friendly film. It made you understand how the Jedi saw the Force in a way different from how Yoda showed Luke, and how Qui Gon was a different sort of "living Force" advocate of the order. You got these ideas, however minor, and it made all the difference in the world that allowed me to enjoy what was, to be completely honest, a film that was plagued with enough elements that I could rightly have hated it under other circumstances. TFA introduced no ideas, no themes, and was more concerned with the meta-narrative of OT character worship than it was in telling a good story.

That's the difference. TPM was an attempt to tell a good story. TFA was an attempt to bank on brand recognition only.

Free will is a golden thread running through the frozen matrix of fixed events.

The IMDB rating system is horribly skewed.

It didn't take any big chances like TPM.