A Decent Homage With Many Flaws

Rating: 7/10 (29 December 2015)

*SPOILER ALERT (DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE!)*
To be fair, I did enjoy this film. I first saw the original trilogy as a child, then Ep.1 when it was released, then Ep.2, and so on. My first impressions of the film were that it was an entertaining movie, but not much else. It lacked originality of any kind aside from costume design/aesthetic appeal. That is to say, story wise it felt very dull.
While even George Lucas said the trilogies are supposed to "rhyme", or mirror each other in certain ways, I felt J.J. took it too far in this one. Essentially, the plot consists of the same events from Ep.4, happening in the same order of Ep.4, with added references and inspirations from Ep.5 and 6. Literally, the only aspect of the plot that is different is that the events occur 30 years after the events of Ep.6 and are carried out by some new characters.
Speaking of the characters, we are introduced to a variety of new characters that will presumably carry the story on for the next two episodes, as well as a handful of familiar ones from the original trilogy. This is great for the most part, as Chewbacca, Princess Leia, R2, and C-3PO all actually contribute to the movie. On the other hand, we see a couple familiar faces from the original trilogy that seem shoe-horned in to appeal to fans, such as Admiral Akbar. One huge disappointment was that we only saw Luke in one short shot at the end of the film, and he has no lines.
I liked Finn's character. He is a nice addition to the saga and I'm interested to see how his character develops. Kylo Ren on the other hand, not so much, but I will talk about that, and Rey's character later.
Now onto what I consider to be major "flaws" in this movie. Firstly, the entire concept of the force was very inconsistently used and misrepresented many times. Like it or not, the prequels are canon and therefore so are its ideas on potential for being force-sensitive being based on genetics. If you have seen the phantom menace, you know Anakin Skywalker is the most force-sensitive individual of all time, and even demonstrated minor use of the force in things like pod racing, without knowing it.
His son, Luke, who is also extremely force sensitive, only is able to use the force in minor ways when instructed by Obi-Wan, and later gradually through training with Yoda. However, the new Rey character is somehow able to utilize jodi-mind tricks, resist force assisted mind-reading, and perform force assisted telekinesis without even realizing she is force sensitive much less receiving any training. WHAT? This is completely inconsistent with the Star Wars universe and I was shaking my head during many scenes as a result.
Indeed, Rey is somehow extremely good at anything she does regardless of experience level, including repairing the Millennium Falcon while Han and Chewie, who have owned the ship for the majority of their LIVES, are not able to. What the hell?
Worst of all, she is able to defeat Kylo Ren in a lightsaber duel. Thats right, a completely untrained scavenger from Jakku is somehow not only able to successfully fence with a trained jedi turned sith, but is able to defeat him. Unreal. The only way I could see this plot hole being redeemed is that somehow Luke was guiding her with the force during the majority of the film, but this is probably not going to be explained.
All in all, I'd say the movie is worth seeing as its entertaining, but in general Its a fairly disappointing film.