Have you seen Episode IV? Then you've seen this film.

Rating: 5/10 (17 December 2015)

On Wednesday/Thursday night at 00:05 I, along with hundreds of other Star Wars fans, wandered happily into the cinema screen with a cautiously optimistic attitude to what I was about to see. Well, thanks J.J. Abrams for ruining my night; you owe me four hours sleep.
To avoid spoilers I will do my best to keep this vague but to the point. The overall view is this: the new characters are weak and mostly unexplained, the interactions between new and old characters feels disingenuous, decent story development has been traded for cheap nostalgia, the whole film is rushed and if you have seen Episode IV then you have seen at least 50% of this film. No kidding, I am going to watch Episode IV closely to see if they have actually copied and pasted.
The new characters: Finn is dull and Rey is conveniently good at EVERYTHING. The introduction of each is rushed, as is the relationship they develop with each other and with the old characters throughout the film, all of which ends up feeling completely disingenuous. We know absolutely nothing about them (maybe the next film will explain?) which makes it incredibly hard to feel anything for either of them.
Cheap Nostalgia: I have no issue with a bit of cheesy nostalgia, but lets not base an entire film on it and forget to write a story. O wait, why write a story when we could just use Episode IV's? Silly me. The introduction of Leia, Han, Chewie and C-3PO is forced. Once the initial "wahoo" moment of seeing your favourites has passed, do they really add anything to the film? No, they don't.
Rushed: Really rushed. Huge parts of the characters background are skipped, the last thirty years are a blur, I still have absolutely no idea who the "baddies" are or where they come from and the "epic" battle is so rushed that it is, well to be honest, s*#t.
Story and character development, with particular reference being made to the relationships between old and new characters, is virtually non-existent. Everybody just happens to love everyone else immediately and with no reason. And Rey, our new, strong, female protagonist, is conveniently amazing at everything she does instantly without any reasoning as to why. But then given that the story is so poor, without this convenience there would be nothing left.
To top it off, this film IS Episode IV. Entire scenes are almost identical. With Episode I, II and III, at least the writers had the excuse of being bound to a set story that all fans knew inside and out. But with Episode VII the possibilities were almost endless. There is no excuse for recycling the old films.
J.J. Abrams has played it so safe with this film that I would feel comfortable leaving a small, indefensible baby alone with it for a prolonged period of time.