Seen it. Reflecting upon it.
I'm being cautious. This is part of an incomplete trilogy; I don't know the big picture yet, nor the broader context of the events to unfold. On the whole I kind of enjoyed the film but throughout a part of me was, I suspect, thinking unconsciously: "This is so old".
I loved the humour, and I loved the action. The chemistry and dialogue between the characters was snappy and energetic - that alone raises it far above the prequels. But it's still not as good as Empire.
I've not read this whole thread - I'm just posting initial thoughts. But Rey absolutely rocks this movie. However, I was gobsmacked at how she can suddenly just "use" the force. And yeah, I know it takes her three times to work that Stormtrooper but it was still way too easy for me.
I think it can be explained in the internal logic of the film that she was clearly recognised to be immensely powerful and gifted, so was hidden away. But I would have loved to see more aggression in her interrogation encounter with Kylo Ren. I would have loved a line in the style of, "Now I know why you wear a mask - you don't want people to see how scared you are," or in the aftermath of their duel, before they're separated: "by the time I'm done with you, you'll need that mask!"
Han Solo's dead? It was coming; I guessed it the minute he went on the mission. I realise they were going for tragedy with his death, but to me it seemed just a bit pathetic. The Solo I know would have been wounded, pinning down stormtroopers to buy his friends time before he pushed the button and blew them all to kingdom come. But that's a hero's death I suppose and Solo ran from heroics many years before. It wasn't a coward's death by any means, but a form of redemption of sorts.
Kylo Ren? He's a little punk. He's a wannabe; an emo with force powers. The half-trained Luke from Empire could have taken this kid. Loved his tantrums mind. The two stormtroopers, who were, like, "Yeah, let's go a different way." Also, watching some barely capable kids hack wildly at each other with lightsabers, where they barely understand and appreciate the weapon, was interesting though.
Thought the stormtroopers died a tad too acrobatically - how many pirouette's can a trooper make before he throws himself dramatically against a wall?
And the silver trooper was, frankly, pathetic. Stormtroopers are meant to be fanatics. Loyal to a fault. Yeah, clearly they've dropped the ball in a few cases, like with Finn but I'm guessing that lass didn't get her silver armour solely through ass kissing. There is no way she would just shut down the shields. She'd say, "kill me now, I ain't gonna do it," or hit an alarm button on the console. Yeah, she might think there would be nothing the rebels - sorry, resistance - could throw at the base regardless, but as a solider and a warrior you don't take that chance. You sacrifice yourself to the greater cause.
And wtf is R2D2 doing, lying in a self induced coma for decades - and he just HAPPENS to have the critical information to make the map make sense?? (I honestly didn't realise just how small BB8 was - I thought he was R2's size but he's only about half!)
BB8 was great - we got a droid that can ACT. He's loveable and not overused.
Finn - cracking guy. Thought he struck just the right chord of comedic and dramatic. Loved his rapport with BB8.
I wasn't too fussed on the combat - maybe I felt the context was overused. But I loved the Falcon. I was openly wincing and groaning at the number of bumps and scrapes that piece of lovable junk took.
Surprisingly I was a little disappointed with aspects of the score, chiefly with the older pieces. They felt - it's hard to explain, but it felt that they hadn't been composed. It was more like a fan had just lifted them directly from the original films and pasted them directly into this one. Same thing with certain sound effects. Han's blaster made the same noise. Again, and again, and again. And again. There was no variation for distance or environment. It was just the same noise over and over and over again.
For the most part, I enjoyed the film. It was good. Not great, but it was good. And I suspect, as Nostalgic Critic suggests, that they wanted to show the audience they could make a Star Wars film before they start bringing the franchise onto a new course - which might explain the repetition of so many classic motifs.
So although I might sound like I'm being quite harsh, I'm not. About the worst thing I could say is that I wouldn't pay to see it in the cinema again, which kind of disappoints me. I could rabbit on about a multitude of other things but I suspect this is a film that I will grow fonder of as time passes.
