A near return to form

Rating: 8/10 (20 December 2015)

For what it lacks in complex story, this film makes up for with a good dose of Star Wars magic. Great performances by the majority of the actors, especially Harrison Ford, really took me back to Episodes iv-vi.
A few negatives though. Some of the cgi, for example alien facial expressions always dragged me out of the moment. The evil Kylo Ren character was poorly realised. Without spoilers, lets just say they've tried to pigeonhole a Game of Thrones type narcissistic character into the wrong galaxy.
Humour/humor is a bit on the thin side, and some of it kinda forced, but every now and then a bit of the old wit would break through, and those were the bits that solicited laughs from the audience. The final climax scene is a overly simple and a bit of a let down, there is no great 'fist punch the air' type moment or great sense of real triumph.
Otherwise, it Certainly isn't as good as the golden trilogy, but it really does feel like a continuation of the Star Wars story. Certainly a necessary watch for fans of New Hope/Empire Strikes/Back/Jedi.