All this movie-making talent and yet,

Rating: 3/10 (21 December 2015)

Disney unthinkably Disneyfied it in a terrible Message to our youth. It's better not to think.
The writers, or Disney executives have let everyone down, whether everyone knows it or not. Abrams, you have razzle dazzled the masses - mainly because you've got some great movie makers at your disposal. And many great skills yourself. However, you (and/or Disney) lack the art of knowing what not to add. As great musicians are aware- it's as much about the notes you DON'T play. Less is often more and when you allow the audience to think a little, they will have a much better experience.
I enjoyed many aspects of the force awakens, with mostly solid performances but a few things were really off and so easily avoidable that it took me out of the movie and it insulted the arts of script writing, story and pacing. Hence the low score.
A few hurriedly noted problems I had:
Snoke's terribly 2 dimensional character (and bad cgi.)
Solo' s death circumstances- bridge, father son, etc, copied and contrived and predictable.
Kylo Ben's tantrums (no doubt appealing to the millions of spoiled brats who are a large part of the target audience)
Finn and Poe's super fast friendship dynamics.
Lack of Poe, who was charismatic and well played.
Too much comedy pushing and lack of common sense from Finn. Really playing it for laughs. ( John made a very good stab at this role from the script and direction he was given, so I applaud him for this but it almost seemed like racial stereotyping, ala Gus Gorman - Superman 3 )
Kylo Ben Heavy bleeding from a laser wound. Surely the heat would sear the wound. At the very least, if he can stop a beam of blaster fire, he can stop a blood flow with the force. I admit this is a minor annoyance. Until he starts punching it in a strangely overpronounced way.
Kylo Ben getting defeated too easily by the relatively untrained Rey and the fact Finn put up a fight against him. Lazy plot convenience of Kylo being bit injured to explain this defeat at our hero's hands.
Lazy lack of imagination in general. Too similar to IV.
No learning / training period for Rey to use force.
No downtime for story development, suspense building, pondering with imagination.
Did I mention the super advanced Jedi abilities and infallibility of Rey. Nothing seemed much of a struggle or journey for her. Huge opportunity for audience empathy for her quest missed. Obviously the main theme of the story. Just fast tracked and brushed aside why?
Some humour in its language and style of delivery is not so tied to a specific era. For example, there are funny moments in the Lord of the rings which don't break the illusion of a far away fantasy land or in this case a far far away Galaxy. Please respect the setting and stop this modern humour for cheap laughs, dating the movie terribly for future generations.
This felt like a fantastic movie making team was tasked with making something entertaining and nostalgic with the most contrived and amateur script conceivable. And they succeeded. Hate to say it, but Nay. There. I'm one of the Nay sayers. Not because I want to be. But because I've decided not to be in denial. I've learned from other times they've fooled me with shiny poo!