As someone who really enjoys the Star Wars franchise, this easily beat my expectations. I thought it was quite good and was paced wonderfully. Daisy Ridley is the obviously highlight here and will be a big, big star. She was fantastic. Overall a lot of fun and Abrams was a great fit for the Star Wars universe (not that that was any kind of surprise). Definitely expected for the next one!

A-

Best scene where the music and the visuals create magic:

So-so:

Grade - A

Loved it. It was so pretty to look at. The light sabers had a different feel and look to them. Loved all the new characters. Comedy was perfect. My only qualm or two is Snope and how he looks and the whole Starkiller base idea to begin with. Amazing film though. Can't wait to see it again, buy it, and play the Disney infinity game of it. Love it

Twilight???? That's like inter species relationships, much crazier.

I thought it was wonderful. This elicited a lot of the same emotions I had with Trek '09, except on an amplified scale. Seeing these characters, this universe, again in a good movie was just remarkable to experience. And it is a good movie. There's already loads of nitpicking (some legitimate, some fucking stupid as hell*), but at the end of the day, it almost feels greedy to ask for more than this film delivered, after being so burned by the prequels. Star Wars is back, and I can't wait for Episode 8 to get back to these characters.

*

I think my only true complaint, at the moment, is the music. It hurt a little to know that John Williams put out something that felt so... unmemorable. I think it's time he step away from the franchise.

Mad Max...well not mega. Especially considering Fury Road is about the topple of Patriarchy.

Do we still have to tag spoilers? If you haven't seen the film and you're on the fourth page of a review thread... bro, SORT YOUR LIFE OUT.

The Hunger Games?

I found it amusing, and certainly not a coincidence, how much The First Order were basically Galactic Empire nerds:

-Just the name itself "The First Order." Hopefully the villains in episodes 10-12 throw some Latin in there.
-Their big plan is take the Death Star, but make it BIGGER. BETTER. MORE BADASS. "Planet-sized Death Star" is something a teenager would come up with while flipping through this
-Snoke is projecting himself via hologram like Palpatine, but he's a BIGGER. BETTER. MORE BADDASS hologram.
-Kylo Ren has the charred Darth Vader mask next to his bed [citation needed], and the craftsmanship of his costume is not too far from something from Comic-Con.
-Captain Phasma's chrome stormtrooper outfit is, again, straight out of Comic-Con.

Abrams went and made the first villianery organization based around homicidal cosplayers.

Couldn't you technically use Titanic, the film is just as much about Rose going against her status, as the main story. Rey is still 1 of 4 equally important leads

No arguments there, but still, those titties.

Titanic imposes traditional feminine roles. Which in some cases is considered anti-feminist.

Rey literally just wants to go home and be complacent for 90% of the film. Take a strong female lead and you can argue for or against any theme. Hell take any character. That's why film is an interpretive media. Only The Sith deal in absolutes.

I was just about to comeback with an am argument, but touché my good sir, touché.

Quite good yet quite disappointing. I'll have more to say later when I get home, but let me just say that I found it quite depressing when I came to the realization that there's basically no chance of recapturing the original three's magic. It's better than the prequels, but what I will say I those films flavor is that they at least felt unique. TFA takes as few chances as possible. And when the last act goes full on ANH retread...come on. Also, Leia gets nothing to do. That was great. Also, how much better would the ending have been if we didn't know Skywalker was coming? At least don't reveal it until the end let alone the opening crawl. And how does Han Solo's "death" feel like an afterthought? Chewie roars briefly and Leia only through force knowing seems a little down. That better not be the end of Solo. It'd be unbelievably depressing if that's how such an iconic characters goes out. I get the ESB parallel, but let's just say Ren is no Darth Vader.

But the first 80-90 minutes or so are amazing. I really liked the new characters and I especially loved BB-8. And I got chills during the light saber fight when Rey figures out she has the force and "grabs" the lightsaber.

(B+ish)

I know my review mostly sounds negative, but I did enjoy myself. It's just that realization I mentioned earlier has me down. Hopefully with no expectations a second time I can enjoy the film even more. As of now, the new trilogy is off to a good yet bumpy start.

1. IV (A+)
2. V (A+)
3. VI (A)
4. VII (B+)
5. III (B)
6. I (C+)
7. II (C)

BB8's thumbs up is probably the best SW moment of all time.

I wish Luke was on Earth doing voice over work, when they found him.

That's probably my biggest complaint as well. Not a single memorable piece.

Partially wrong. Not a single new memorable piece. The existing themes still sounded great.

I didn't interpret that as a thumbs up.

I agree with the person who said the film needs more political/social context regarding the Republic, the First Order, etc. What has the Republic become in the years since Return of the Jedi? Is the First Order a state-sponsored military force or a terrorist group? It seems the latter, but if so, why is the resistance called a resistance in the first place? Why are they not just the Republic's army? Does the Republic have any military strength?

This seems an over-correction in response to George Lucas' borderline fetish for galactic-trade-union chicanery.

It seemed pretty clear to me The Republic was funding the resistance in secret, for whatever reason. My internal head canon is probably something like a lack of public support to actually go to war. So The First Order is striking out at them with the Starkiller due to them providing the resistance with weapons/fleets; a good analogy might be if Pearl Harbor never happened and the US never entered WW2, and instead Nazi Germany nuked several major cities some years later.

Shit, that's even better. Good call.

Also, was Coruscant one of the planers that were destroyed?

D'uh.