Myeh.....

Rating: 4/10 (5 January 2016)

I want to like this latest SW episode. I really do. However....
First the positives:
It was good to see Han, Chewie, Leia, C3PO, R2 and Luke again. And it's great to see the Millennium Falcon fly again.
The new main character droid, the "beachball" BB-8 was pretty cool. And Chewie is even more of a card than in his previous roles.
Now the negatives: So much of this movie seemed to be a remake with new characters and actors of Episode IV - droid has secret info that has to be delivered to rebels; some version of a death star has to be destroyed to save the galaxy from the bad guys, the main bad guy wears a mask that electronically distorts his voice, the nightclub has a funky alien Catina band, blah blah blah.
Like I said; I could almost imagine this to be a cheap warming over of Episode IV. I'm glad I paid a matinÃ©e price and not an evening show ticket price.
And certain parts of the plot just seemed to happen mysteriously without a lot of development/explanation. And no matter if it's their first time to even handle a new weapon or to deal with the Force, the heroes seem to be expert at using them with no training. Really? At least in Ep. IV Obi-Wan had to train Luke on the force and how to use a light saber.
SPOILER ALERT! Could they have been more obvious they were leaving this open to a sequel?
Killing Han Solo? Really? Seriously? Oh, man!