What I have been waiting for.

Rating: 10/10 (18 December 2015)

Personally, I do not understand the bad reviews and what people expected. I don't know how you could have made this movie better. I have read reviews criticizing the character development, however, as with every other Star Wars movie...the characters develop more over the series. For me, that has always been one of the things I have loved about Star Wars films, is that in each new movie, you uncover new layers of the characters and learn more about them.
Yes, the movie left me wondering... Who is Rey? What will become of Finn? Etc...but I definitely do not see that as a negative. It makes me want more, and it makes me excited to see the next.
I wholeheartedly agree with the reviews I have seen that describe the setting as "authentic". Although, I personally still liked the prequel films -- as to me, they were significant and necessary to the whole story -- the one thing that I did NOT like in the prequels was the inauthentic feel of the settings/worlds. I thought the CGI was overdone and poorly done at that in the prequels...BUT in this movie, it was spot on. Everything looked "real" -- or as real as fictional space creatures and such can look anyway! I get it that ESB was epic, and that for a lot of people nothing will ever compare... but, I don't think it's fair to compare every Star Wars film to it. Each movie is unique and significant in its own way -- and for me, this film was just as amazing and as powerful as Empire Strikes Back was.
There was the perfect balance between action and story/dialogue. I thoroughly enjoyed the new characters -- especially Finn, General Hux, and BB-8. I thought they couldn't have picked a better person to play Hux, honestly.
Anyway... I loved it...every second of it. So much so that I plan on seeing it multiple times over. And I really hope that anyone who hasn't already seen it, ends up feeling the same.