Nearly a perfect masterpiece for fans, fantastic continuation of the old series.

Rating: 10/10 (18 December 2015)

There are no spoilers in this, which makes it vague, however if you are going to see the movie this is what you need to know, it's not specifically about the movie, but the experience.
Ever since I was a tiny boy I have loved Star Wars. I am now 21. Lucas had the vision for this fantastic universe, but ruined the execution, as a kid I didn't notice and fell in love but as an adult, I realized all the flaws and it upset me somewhat. However! When I went in to see this film before anybody spoiled it for me, It took me right back to my childhood, I was instantly 4 years old, totally captivated and in awe of this universe, I had goosebumps many times, I cried during the film in joy and sadness.
First thing is the acting, a big round of applause, the actors all were phenomenal, the characters were funny and played their roles in a manner that made them seem like real people in a crazy galaxy, However! The stand out performance goes to Harrison Ford. Han Solo, even as an old man is at his all time best, he is A witty, funny, cynical, wry, smooth talking fast shooting, troublemaking fearless bad ass. He is everything you could envision and how the books (Non canon) depict him and I feel like this is one large part why everyone connected with the movie so well.
Secondly Is that JJ Abrams lets you feel the emotions, if you recall. Lucas's style was to do this thing where if the scene was meant to be emotional, he would force it onto you to the point where it got cheesy in the originals, or cringeworthy in the prequels. In this film, emotional scenes are not dragged on, the actors don't pull crazy faces, but somehow, the weight of it all is there and the director lets you feel it yourself.
Adding to that, the film really lets you figure things out, it doesn't include every piece of information you need, it gives you some, and then you fill in the obvious blanks, the plot was very believable and followed a fairly natural trajectory, scenes didn't feel odd and out of place, Lucas fell down there big time, No useless scenes that don't add to the movie like staring out windows for long periods of time, or big dragged out, unnecessary dialogue which states the obvious.
The fourth thing I wanted to talk about were the actions scenes, my goodness they were fantastic. Blasters were powerful like the original trilogy, they cause a lot of damage, and the shootout scenes are believable. People actually get hit, the scenes are dark and frightening like war should be, and Stormtroopers are very lethal, these guys really, really know how to shoot. Another hallmark of a captivating film, The director has not gone crazy on jump cuts, many of the action scenes are shot from only a few wider angles so you can see everything that is happening like you are out there watching, I was transfixed, wide eyed and awed watching the Star Fighter scenes, they were incredible, just as tense as the Trench Run, but even more brilliantly put together, and again, shot from wider angles so you can see how they manoeuvre, the amazing skills of the pilots flying at breakneck speeds in life or death situations.
There is lightsaber battle scenes, and these are also well shot, tense and not over the top, it's not a series of spins and backflips that at times got out of hand in the prequels, which were definitely cool, but I feel like they got it right in this movie, they are tense and exhilarating and really show the skill levels of the different fighters, rather than a cool blur of blue and red which while exciting, is hard to perceive who is winning, I won't reveal any more on the subject.
As a proper review I will point out a few issues that I didn't mind, but were present. - The plot seemed slightly rehashed at parts, perhaps this was to draw in the old viewers with something familiar -Because the film was only two hours long, it did feel slightly rushed towards the end, like a key step was missed, however at the same time I feel it might not have been necessary because some points in the plot, like the battles were more of a secondary plot to what was really being focused on in the film, a backdrop if you will. - Characters skill sets were impressive without much backstory for them, however I could put it down to letting us fill in the blanks and letting us imagine how before the film they became skilled rather than throwing in one or two scenes of somebody training.
Overall The film was the best Star Wars yet in terms of direction. Perhaps the other ones had better plots, but the lack of obvious holes, fantastic direction and use of only the important scenes really makes it shine.
Any viewer, whether they have loved or hated Star Wars, or even seen the other movies will enjoy this film tremendously, a fantastic Sci- Fi flick all on its own. 9.5/10.