Honest Review, Some Spoilers

Rating: 5/10 (22 January 2016)

Overall this film was a disappointment, but I have to disagree with most of the one or two star reviews and people claiming that it's the "worst" film in the franchise.
First, the visuals and cinematography were stunning and made up for the cartoon-like CGI from the last three movies. The ships, aliens, and sets were painstakingly built and looked wonderful. Go back and look at episode I-III and you see entire CGI scenes where only the actors are real. The Stormtroopers actually seem dangerous, rather than just running around being killed.
Second, the folks who are crying about "political correctness" have no basis for their complaints. There is nothing overly PC about this film. One of the characters is black, one is a woman, a couple of white guys, and a Wookie. There wasn't any forced love connection between Finn and Rey or anything like that.
The real overwhelming failure was the appallingly lazy writing and character development. The characters are literally just replacements from episode IV - VI and even do exactly the same things. Emporer Palpatine = Supreme Leader Snoke, Kylo Ren is the new Vader, etc. They have to destroy the planet-weapon (death star replacement) and of course have to get the shields down first (just like episode IV and VI.) There was no new story whatsoever. Rey just sort of figures out that she has force powers with no training, and can somehow fly and fix the Falcon, Finn's defection from the order is way too simplified, etc.
Honestly, if they can keep the look of the film and pair it with a director that has any creativity, the franchise could get back on track. Unfortunately JJ Abrams is not that person.