Kick-ass movie, deserving of all praise and your money.

Rating: 9/10 (28 December 2015)

The Star Wars: The Force Awakens is possibly my favorite movie-going experience since I went and saw Return of the King back in '03. For better perspective, Return of the King and Fellowship of the Ring are my two favorite movies, ever. I enjoyed the hell out of this movie, when even as the opening text crawl was up on the screen, I was feeling apprehensive about it because of how the prequels turned out.
The opening thirty minutes are pretty exciting, and then the film slows down for a bit. Here, we're introduced to Rey,Finn, and bb-8, our new heroes for this next chapter. Finn is anxiety-ridden and afraid, and Rey is a tough loner. bb-8 is a cute little robot. Right away, something is different from the prequels; there's not a lot of pretty, cgi backgrounds, and the screen isn't full of cgi aliens. The atmosphere is a bit dark and brooding, as Rey is depicted as struggling to get by. None of the characters on screen are annoying comic relief, nor do we ever such a character throughout the movie; the humor comes through witty dialogue and characters acting silly.
Two of our main antagonists, Kylo Ren and Captain Phasma, are also introduced here. I didn't feel like Captain Phasma did much, but Kylo Ren is a worthy successor to Darth Vader; he's an evil, conflicted villain, but he also shows instances of being batshit crazy. He freaks out on walls with his light saber and talks to old, half-melted helmets. There's also General Hux of the First Order, and Snoke, Kylo Ren's instructor. The general is not as sinister-in looks or in presence-as Grand Moff Tarkin, and Snoke is a weird-looking creature-probably the weakest part of this film (sorry, Andy Serkis).
Eventually, Rey, Finn, and bb-8 run into Han and Chewie. Harrison Ford looks and feels pretty old in this, which makes sense, considering his age. He still carries a strong presence, however, and turns in one of his better performances in the past few decades. Chewie is Chewie, although he didn't have as much of a presence in this as in past films. Han and Chewie take Rey, Finn, and bb-8 to an old bar, where we meet a short alien with a big head and weird spectacles, named Maz. At first, she seemed kinda odd and annoying, but she then reveals herself as an important part of the story, being the keeper of Luke's old light saber and intuiting about Rey and Finn.
By now, I'd come to care a great deal about Finn and Rey, and was worried about what was going to happen to them next. They were good new protagonists for the next trilogy. I've also learned enough about Kylo Ren to have conflicted feelings about him. Then Leia shows up; not only does Carrie Fisher look old, her voice sounds old. I hear the years haven't been kind to her. It's nice to see her return, though.
The climactic battle on the star killer base is a lot of fun, and comes with the death of Han. You could see this coming as soon as he walked out on the bridge towards Kylo Ren, and saw storm troopers up on the rafters above him. This death didn't impact me as much as it impacted others (and it probably would've had a bigger effect if it happened in Empire). Still, the fight between Kylo Ren and Finn, and then Kylo Ren and Rey, were a lot of fun, as was the simultaneous space dog fight. Poe Dameron, a character who disappeared earlier in the movie, came back to lead the Resistance's forces in that battle.
The movie ends as Luke is finally revealed. He doesn't speak a line, but Mark Hamill is second-billed, which I found pretty hilarious. I will say that his reveal was pretty epic, however; a pan shot around a hill on an island in the middle of an ocean. In fact, there's no dialogue during that entire sequence, which lends some nice dramatic effect.
Is the movie perfect? I guess not, but I don't think anything man-made is. I didn't think Return of the King or Fellowship of the Ring were perfect movies either, but they are my favorite movies ever, so they get perfect scores. Will this remain a perfect ten out of ten for me? Maybe not. (edit: it didn't, heh...) It will probably remain one of my favorite movies, however; it might be the second best Star Wars movie, as others have said. All in all, this is a very good, very entertaining, and very well-made movie. It's making a lot of money and has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics and viewers, alike, and deservedly so.