The force is Average with this one!

Rating: 5/10 (2 January 2016)

30 years have passed since the events of episode 6 (beware spoilers ahead), but this film spends virtually zero time establishing the background to what has happened before, and from the very get go of one mindless explosion to another, this is an action packed let- down, with very shallow character development, re-hashed action sequences stolen from episodes 5&6 (father-son confrontations/death star finale), poor comedy timings and poorer dialogue (Finn asking Ray if she has a boyfriend), and really awkward character introductions, such as that first superficial meeting between old flames Leia and Han - really? And what about the new death star: bigger, badder, but in fact much much tamer and stupider, with the very same weak spots as the old death star, which makes you wonder if human evolution in 30 years (where the dark side is concerned), is in genetic reverse. Like most of the film, soft spots like this just felt like generic, copied from, and dumbed down fan service without much thinking in way of originality, substance, and credibility, which is what real fans of Star Wars and fans of good films in general wanted for this incarnation.
However, there are a few pluses here, since this film is still miles better than episode 1-3, and where roles are concerned, the strong female lead in Ray, and the prominent African American male lead in Finn, are commendable. There is still lots of room for improvement here, to prevent these characters from becoming merely token gestures in later episodes. Otherwise from a technical viewpoint, the one other major positive is the special effects. The use of actual effects in animatronics and physical set-pieces are the one aspect that set this film apart from most blockbusters nowadays, and here they are resoundingly successful in their use. Even the virtual effects (CGI), are used sparingly, and meld fluidly into the scene without distracting from the visual prowess. Yet more food for thought, despite this, it just goes to show how amazingly good the previous star wars films episode 4-6 looked, that the visual differences between them and this film are very minuscule.
So to sum up, this is another franchise film in a long line of cash-in follow-ups that are mostly style over substance, and you'll need to suspend a lot of quality control to really like this one, but it also goes to show that you know a film is not doing the right things when its trailer made a better movie than its full incarnation. Thus in conclusion, the force is NOT so strong with this one, and only deserving of a fantastically superficial 5/10.