It did the franchise right, but as a single story it wouldn't be enough.

Rating: 8/10 (21 December 2015)

I saw it a few days after it came out, when all the craziness had passed. And I have to say that I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Even though it has some points of improvement.
After reading all the bad (spoiler-free) reviews, my expectations went from very high to quite low. And after watching it I can understand both sides.
They tried to make a movie for everyone; the hardcore fans, as well as the mainstream public. But you can't please everyone. The mainstream people - as in people who've heard of star wars, but not necessarily 've seen the movies - got a cool cinematic experience; An interesting storyline, with great music, beautiful locations, good effects and good looking and likable actors. The hardcore star wars fans got a lot of references, many nostalgic moments and a new story/beginning to fan-girl/boy over.
But, to fully please the first group, there had to be less typical star wars stuff. Sometimes there were just too many music scores to fully embrace and believe the story. And at one point the typical star wars camera zooms just became too unnecessary and irritating. And to fully have pleased the second group, they should've made a more original story, with far less expected story lines. Instead of a modern remake with new characters.
The cinematic experience was amazing. The editing was amazing. The humor in it was nicely done. The characters and actors were good choices, even though the acting could've been more believable, but that's forgiven. And everything felt real (except for the fact that some 3D things just didn't work and were totally unnecessary.) It keeps you wanting more, which is what the franchise strives for of course. And it definitely deserves a watch.
Let's just hope the filmmakers didn't use the old characters just for the one-liners and that the next movie can stand on it's own a little more and doesn't rely on such cliché and let's- explain- what's- going- on- for- the- very- few- people- who- maybe- didn't- get- it dialogue.