CNN  — 

It may still hold a 95% approval rating on popular review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, but “The Force Awakens” has failed to impress everyone.

Most notably, an unnamed critic writing for “L’Osservatore Romano,” the daily newspaper of the Vatican State, who finds the movie “disappointing” and dismisses J.J. Abrams’ direction as worthy of today’s sloppiest action films.

osservatore romano

The review, titled “Confuso e sfocato meaning “confused and unfocused” – first exposes the main plot line, calling Rey “a thief of spare parts” and Finn “a repented assailant.”

It then takes its first jab at Abrams, noting how the direction of the past films was elegant, balanced and appropriate in comparison to his.

Praise for Lucas

The review then looks back at Lucas’ work, calling it classic cinema and sparing more than a few appreciative words for the prequels, which through their “placid and solemn transparency” seemingly captured the imagination of the young and the adult alike.

This is apparently missing from “The Force Awakens,” which is simply “a reboot designed for an audience more familiar with computer screens than the silver screen.”

But wait, it’s not even a classy reboot (“like Nolan’s ‘Batman”), but one that simply follows the “trends of the day.”

Not evil enough!

That sounds like a rather grim outlook already, but the absolute worst part of the film, where “the director’s work fails miserably,” is actually “the depiction of evil.”

Once again we come to this through comparison, as Darth Vader and Palpatine are summoned as “two of the most effective evil characters in American cinema, capable of conveying a genuine sense of wickedness.”

But “The Force Awakens” is terrible at this, with Kylo Ren dismissed as a copycat and Snoke as “the film’s biggest flaw” – a view that remains unraveled as to not spoil the plot, but which calls into question the CGI depiction of the character, who ends up being “goofy.”

Lack of drama

A strong distaste of computer graphics should leave the door open for at least a shred of approval for the film’s use of real locations and props.

Sadly, no: the decision (“excessively hyped”) has materialized into nothing but “a lack of drama” and a general sense of “anonymity.”

It must be noted thatL’Osservatore Romano” – while it provides the function of publishing all of the Vatican’s official documents – is not an official organ of the Holy See, and as such it retains a distinct and independent editorial line.

But it’s clear throughout the review that amid the nostalgia that “The Force Awakens” has leveraged, this one reviewer only feels nostalgic about George Lucas, a “genius producer” who has been wrongly “left aside.”

See more Star Wars coverage from CNN’s Feel the Force