Everyone Has Already Seen The Film Anyway...

Rating: 8/10 (28 December 2015)

I don't think there are any real spoilers in this review, but I checked the box just in case.
No one will be influenced to see or not see this film based on these reviews because everyone that reads these reviews have already seen the film and are just deciding whose opinion agrees with their own. With that in mind, this review will be down-voted by all of my fellow Star Wars fans, but I have to be honest about it anyway.
If you enjoyed the first film of the franchise ("Episode IV"), which I loved since I saw it as a 10-year-old in the Cine Capri Theater in Phoenix in its second week of release in 1977 and the dozen or so times I've watched it since, then you'll enjoy this one, because it's basically the same movie with more advanced special effects. When I saw it on opening day, I would have rated it six or seven stars. After seeing it again a few days later, I feel it's worthy of eight stars. The humor could have been better with the caliber of writers in the business these days, and it would have been cool if there had been some surprises or plot twists, but there just weren't any.
A protagonist whose aspirations are linked to the stars is living on a desert planet, is found by a droid carrying important information that has to be delivered to the secret rebel base, and gets caught up in a galactic struggle via the Millennium Falcon and its big-hearted smuggler owner, Han Solo. Sound familiar? Except this one has a masked villain in black who takes the film's heroine prisoner on his planet-destroying space station to extract information about the resistance... Oh, wait.
Okay, well this bad guy used to be a good guy but was seduced by the dark side and is now the protegé of a holographic evil leader... Dang! That sounds like Episode IV also.
Well in this one, the villain uses his his light saber to kill... Ah, never mind.
The most "tragic" part of the film could be seen coming a mile away, but a lot of people act like they were surprised by it. The good news is there are no Ewoks, Gungans, or other goofy species in large numbers, so it doesn't have the silliness of some of the other episodes.
From the perspective of this being the introduction to another potentially good Robin Hood saga about the benevolent rebels fighting the evil empire, this is a very enjoyable film. I'm very interested to see where the story goes, and how it develops before Rey kills Kylo Ren and the Resistance destroys the First Order.
I'm looking forward to the next episode to see if there's an explanation as to why the heroine of the film is already practically a Jedi master without even being trained in the ways of the Force. I'd also like to know more about that light saber/tonfa combo weapon with which that stormtrooper was kicking Finn's butt! Where did that come from!? LOL