ONLY just above Phantom Menace. Big letdown overall.

Rating: 4/10 (17 December 2015)

Saw it earlier in London, England.
Not a memorable experience at all. The movie overall is barely above The Phantom Menace. It has all the basic ingredients from the OT but sadly most are reduced to barely glimpsed cameos.
Han & Chewie carry the movie. Without them it would be in deep trouble. Rey is OK but the rest of the newcomers leave little impression apart from BB8 (who is not even human just a droid).
The new actors are all miscast (except for Daisy Ridley) & or the screenplay is weak so is the plot.
The movie barely works at all its confusing a lot of the time & very unconvincing the way the drama plays out is pretty amateurish.
John Williams is wasted his music is not very memorable at all. Big letdown.
ILM FX are also very average nothing special just stuff you have seen in other Star Wars movies.
George Lucas is lucky & wise he retired after 6 movies to let others take the criticism's. TFA deserves a lot of negativity mainly towards the story,screenplay, plot, direction & producers. Its a barely functional Star Wars movie which plays more like a mismatch of the OT SW movies than a new entry.
At best its A New Hope redux with barely different characters/locations.
At worse its a film school fanboy A New Hope redux.
My only hope is EP8 is way better otherwise Star Wars as a viable film franchise is finished creatively.