I love Star Wars, but I feel people are missing the obvious flaws in this one in the short term. Overall, clearly better than the prequels, but some serious plot holes.

SPOILER ALERT

After the death of Han, Rey and Chewbacca travel to the planet that Leia is on. Leia walks right past Chewie, Hans best friend and someone she has known and loved for decades and gives Rey a hug and comforts her...keep in mind Rey is a girl she has never met in person before.

The giant tentacle monster scene. They quickly eat and kill all the bounty hunters after Han. But when they grab Finn they don't eat and and run around the ship flailing him behind them...nice plot device

And of course Rey a completely untrained force user somehow quickly overcomes a well trained force user. All it takes it focus.

Nice call, moviebuf, on Leia not even knowing Rey. I didn't catch that.

Ending on a Han funeral maybe would have helped it feel like a more satisfyingly complete movie, instead of ending right before Rey and Luke start talking.

I could discuss Rey's vision for days. I just got out of my third viewing and I'm pretty positive these are the things I heard/saw

Young girl crying, screaming no which is definitely Rey
Luke screaming no from Empire
Yoda's voice
Seeing the flash of Luke and R2 which I'm thinking may be a flash of things to come.
The Knights of Ren surrounded by dead bodies which I also think is coming.
First Order base
Vision of the snow where they fight
"These are the first steps"
And I'm almost 100% certain I heard Obi-Wan say "Rey" what does that mean!?!?

In short, I felt like the whole movie was just a preamble to the next episode. Smart in terms of building anticipation for what's next, but not very satisfying. Things in the trailer were not in the film, including for me the most exciting thing. I was pissed about that.

Not very good in terms of action. I really hope that all the sabre skills in the galaxy have not been lost. Come on - somebody on some planet must know how to fight with elite skill. Mildly decent aircraft scenes but nothing better than anything from the previous 6.

Very little I would have wanted to know after Jedi was addressed much if at all. Almost every new question asked by this film is not answered. I really don't see any argument for this being as good as Sith or even Clones. Definitely not in the league of the original trilogy either. I really, really wanted to like it more.

B

Those images are from the Knights of Ren wiping out the academy, then Luke says goodbye to Artoo and disappears.

Rey had a vision...of Kylo...killing...Younglings.

Just got back from seeing this a second time.

For now, I'll say it's highly entertaining and satisfying, but still flawed. A-

More specific thoughts in the spoilers section.

Rey owns everything.

Apparently, it was indeed Alec Guinness saying "Rey."

http://www.avclub.com/article/jj-abrams ... rd--230077

Kinda awesome.

I guess its fitting that a non memorable SW film would have a non memorable score.

But in all seriousness, you be you.

We got to at least hear him talk during the flashback sequence

Oh please. I'm not trolling. Nothing in this movie is fresh outside of the new characters.

From EW...

1. There’s a droid carrying valuable information who finds himself on a desolate desert planet.

2. There’s a Force-sensitive, masked, and darkly clothed antagonist who arrives on the scene shortly after the information is handed off, looking for the droid.

3. There’s a desert settlement that is wiped out by stormtroopers.

4. There’s a hero who’s tortured by the bad guys to retrieve the information.

5. There’s a lonely, Force-strong desert dweller who dreams of more.

6. There’s a worldly old warrior who has to explain the Force to the next generation.

7. There’s a cruel military officer who holds a comparable level of authority to his Force-sensitive, masked, and darkly clothed colleague.

8. There’s a mostly unseen supreme evil that’s pulling the strings from the shadows.

9. There’s a criminal element that’s owed a debt by Han Solo and attempts to kill him after he screws up their arrangement.

10. There’s a cantina filled with various alien creatures.

11. There’s a moment when one of the heroes abandons the fight as a self-preservation measure, but he eventually returns.

12. There’s a massive spherical weapon that’s used to destroy a planet.

13. There’s a base belonging to the rebel forces on a forest-covered world.

14. There’s a surrogate father figure who is cut down by someone previously close to him, who has turned to the dark side.

15. The hero watches helplessly from afar as the surrogate father figure is slayed.

16. There’s a coordinated aerial attack on the massive spherical weapon that’s monitored from a control room by Leia.

17. There’s a trench that X-wings flew through in order to fire on a vulnerability in the weapon and destroy it.

18. There’s a massive explosion that gives the rebels a major victory but likely allows the Force-sensitive, masked, and darkly clothed antagonist to survive to fight another day.

Beautiful. It's like poetry.

I'm starting to feel some really cool vibe that Luke when in the temple is literally haunted by everyone who has died. Even an excuse to bring maybe Han back in a sequel, where he of course ends up forgiving him and re motivates look to return.

Also I find it odd that he would just disappear, when he could clearly have overpowered Kylo Ren. There's gonna be some big reveals hopefully.

I would rank this above the original HG, but CF is better. The Mockingjays aren't mega blockbusters.

This is basically the Marvel template forced onto Star Wars.

I would not be surprised if they went ahead with that brand's lack of direction or rather, too much adherence to the big, never-ending masterplan.

It's tiring and it's obviously not for storyline purposes as it is to make more money.

I'd hardly call it marvel when they were stealing the SW formula to begin with

BK's just mad brah

No I agree with BK. SW used to be about telling a story. The OT all had great stories and great characters. The prequels tried far too hard to have good stories, and forgot about believable dialogue and characters, but outside of Rey, Finn and Poe, who kick ass, there is more inspiration in any 15 minute segment of any of the first six films than in the entirety of The Force Awakens. It's almost like the opposite situation of the prequels, the characters are the focus, not the story.

TFA has a lot more in common with Trek '09 than any of the Marvel films. But I guess that doesn't fit the narrative some users want to campaign for.

You're so racist zwacks. What about BB8?

Zwacky

Another issue with this film is we are given zero context for anything that happens. What is the First Order? How are they different from the Empire? There really doesn't seem to be any difference between the two. It's like if a sequel to Harry Potter What about the Republic? Was it reformed? Is there a Jedi Order? What has progressed in the 30 years? This film really negates any sense of accomplishment or finality that Return of the Jedi once brought. What was the point if the first Order were just to rise? After this trilogy, will we just have another planet destroying enemy rise?