A proper Star Wars Film....with a couple of flaws

Rating: 6/10 (19 December 2015)

THERE ARE BIG SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW!
In short (and I'm saying this as a huge original trilogy Star Wars fan) I thought it was pretty reasonable....but not without a couple of annoying faults.
The Good -
To me the whole thing feels like a proper Star Wars movie that sits nicely with the original trilogy. It's good to see everything looking beaten up and dirty again, which was sadly missing from Lucas's CGI-fest prequels. I thought the humour worked pretty well here too - not OTT like Lucas would've done nowadays. I think Kylo Ren has potential to become a great villain and I for one am very pleased they haven't tried to "out-Vader" Vader here.
I also liked how Finn was a complete coward - good for character growth over the next movies, and a massive change to the usual steely-eyed and steely-jawed Hollywood heros. Rey was also good for the most part, with a couple of exceptions. And I actually liked Supreme Leader Snoke, especially as I was previously concerned that he was going to look total garbage as an all-CGI character. I think he worked pretty well, especially at the giant size of the hologram.
A lot of people have said it's basically just a remake of ANH with a bit of ESB thrown in and I totally agree, but I actually think that's not a bad way to go as it grounds the new characters in something familiar. I loved the little nostalgic touches like the glass panel screens in the Resistance control room like in ANH and ESB, Admiral Akbar being there, the holo-game on the Falcon, the old style targeting screen on the Falcons guns, etc. All nice touches in my opinion.
I thought BB8 was great - even more personality than R2, and a fine addition to the Star Wars universe. I thought Han was great - same character as he always was, but even more cranky. However (and even though you could see it coming a mile off), I think Han's death was quite a weak end for such an iconic and much loved character. I also loved the Luke reveal at the end as well, and although we knew it from the trailers, I really liked all the wrecked Empire ships on Jakku. I also like the way they toned down all the Jedi/Sith Force-jumps as I always felt the prequels were way too OTT in that regard.
The Less Good -
That said, there were a couple of extremely annoying bits that would've been so SO easy to rectify. Firstly, how the hell did Rey pick up the Force so suddenly??? At the beginning of the movie she knows jack about the Force, and then all of a sudden she can do mind tricks on Stormtroopers and basically kick Ren's ass with a lightsaber! He's been properly trained for years but she basically whips his ass so that he's only saved by a massive crevasse opening up in the ground. Luke took 3 movies and Yoda banging on at him for months to get even remotely good, so how is she suddenly that good in couple of hours... with no training, or even any knowledge of the Jedi??? What is this - "Instant-Jedi" for the ADHD generation???
Also how is Rey so incredible at both fixing and flying the Falcon despite clearly having no way of knowing how? Hell, she even tells HAN what to fix!?!
The second really irritating thing (and this is even worse) is how Finn just picks up a lightsaber and also nearly kick Ren's ass as well!! At least Rey (who is clearly going to turn out to be either Luke's kid, or in some other way hugely force-adept) has some inbred connection to the Force, but Finn has nothing at all...and no training...and yet can hold his own in a lightsaber fight with Ren. I thought all of that kind of made Ren to look a bit pathetic and not really a threat by the end of the movie....which is a shame as I reckon he's got potential to be a damn good villain. (I loved the opening battle when Ren uses the force to stop a laser blast in mid flight, but he seemed to just forget about his own ability when being faced with a janitor with zero saber-time! Knowing what he could do a mere 90 minutes previously makes it all the more pathetic how Rey and Finn can almost beat him).
The last thing that irritated me (and this is JJ Abrams through and through) was how the Starkiller Base laser worked. Sucking up the power of a sun?? Really??? So they can store the entire power of a star (a STAR!!) in a machine.... built into a planet? Oooookay then. And what happens once they've done that and fired the weapon? No chance to recharge it again... so the whole base/planet goes into a nuclear winter as the sun is dead. Yes I KNOW this is sci-fi, and I KNOW disbelief has to be suspended, but the whole "draining a sun" thing is just a typical crap Abrams MacGuffin. And all the more annoying as there was no need for it!
It's just a real shame because those bits I've mentioned above could've been changed very slightly and it wouldn't have damaged the story in any way.
But all in all I think it's a decent enough movie, and about as good as our over-inflated expectations could hope for. I say again it's a shame Han is dead (and I would've liked to see him check out a little more heroically) because now we will never see the big reunion of Han, Luke and Leia.... but hey, that's the movies for you!