Best Star Wars Movie, Not the Best Movie

Rating: 7/10 (28 December 2015)

I came into Star Wars 7 with hesitant excitement, hyped over the prospect of a new Star Wars movie and cool looking footage which seemed to have a more serious vibe, and dubious over the villain. After seeing the movie, I feel both satisfied and disappointed, but looking forward to the next stage of this new trilogy.
The things that I liked/loved about the movie. I liked the main characters, Rey and Fin, the different personalities, backstory and relationship. Rey, a woman living on the desert planet Jakku who dreams of more (the shot where it shows the old woman opposite her cleaning the junk while she also does it was particularly symbolic and subtle)and Fin, a rogue storm trooper who makes the decision to go against the First Order. Harrison Ford's Han Solo was great and didn't feel forced, and the general atmosphere of the movie was great, with practical sets, dialogue and realism of the Original Trilogy Star Wars. BB-8 is probably my favourite droid, the perfect combination of cuteness and usefulness (the scene where he gives Fin the thumbs up with the light!).
However, the film suffers from the "Abrams Effect", where a rebooted or soft rebooted film franchise has to try bridge the gap between the old fans who don't want the new movie to be different to the movie they love and the new generation who don't care and just want an exciting experience. Abrams did this rather well with 2009's Star Trek, getting rid of a lot of the smaller Star Trek details, going back to the original Spock and Kirk, and adding in the action and explosions that the general audience crave for these days. Abrams once again did, and succeeded, with his direction of Star Wars 7, but I believe goes too far.
Firstly, the plot is a complete recycle of Star Wars (A New Hope) and has elements from Empire and Return which seems propelled by coincidence rather than human intervention. A droid is carrying information vital to the Resistance (Rebellion) that the First Order (the Empire) and a Sith Lord (Darth Vader) want. Along the way the droid encounters an unknown named Rey (Luke) on a desert planet called Jakku (Tatooine) with hidden Force abilities which they use to stop the First Order, meeting Han Solo and Chewbacca and also having to destroy the new StarKiller Base (Death Star) by destroying the shield reactor (Return of the Jedi). At least George Lucas tried to make an unique story with the prequels, this story had little originality and makes me want to know what Lucas had in store with his new trilogy (not that I want them to be movies that is). The story took me out of the movie completely and at the end left me more disappointed.
Secondly, the dialogue, although for the most part excellent, just had too many Marvel-like quips. For me, the beginning jokes landed for me such as the BB-8 thumbs up, the Millennium Falcon reveal and Fin telling himself not be nervous and Poe getting confused, but these jokes happen too much for me and also took me out of the film. They may have made me chuckle, but it seemed less Star Wars and more catering to the new post-Marvel generation (which I am becoming quickly sick of the one liners and quips).
Thirdly, the CGI, which is 95% great, was particularly noticeable in the Falcon and two of the CGI characters we are introduced to, Maz Kanata(?) and Snoke, although this is probably due to how much practical sets are in this movie and that contrast.
Now BIG SPOILERS talk such as Kylo Ren and big reveals. Skip to the last paragraph if you don't want these (although most people have probably seen the movie by now).
Kylo Ren is a mixed bag for me. When I came out of the cinema I hated him, as I expected, but now I'm just not sure. He is introduced as this ultimate badass character who can read minds, stop blaster shots and is seemingly pro with his lightsabre and has a distraught past with his parents Han and Leia. But as soon as his face is revealed (which I am disappointed by the lack of anything memorable on his face) he is turned into a wimp, who has temper tantrums, gets easily beaten by someone who just learnt they were force sensitive and needs more training. Although this is good for a character development standpoint, I just dislike this sudden change of character, make him either badass or an apprentice, not both.
Han Solo's death was rather obvious, making you say "I knew that was going to happen!" rather than "Oh no!". His death tries to parallel the Obi Wan Kenobi death in A New Hope, succeeds to a certain degree (the grazing of Kylo/Ben's face was touching, no pun intended), I am left ultimately feeling like it didn't matter.
Captain Phasma was wasted, Poe Dameron didn't do anything for me, and Luke's 15 second end shot seemed forced in for the Star Wars fans who wanted Mark Hamill to be in it (including me).
If I seem to so many gripes with the movie, then why am I giving it 7/10? Because despite of its flaws, I have seen it twice and I am excited to see the next two in the trilogy, and Abrams did a great job of incorporating the best of the Original Trilogy, more or less discarding the Prequels and adding in the action and humour touches that the modern audience want. Star Wars The Force Awakens, in my opinion, is the best Star Wars made, it just leaves too many different sequel bait moments and "rhymes" too much with the Original Trilogy to give it the 10/10 I hope that it would get.