Big Fat MEH.

Rating: 5/10 (6 February 2016)

Currently this movie is sitting at an 8.4 on IMDb. Even with the "new movie effect", that score is pretty ludicrous.
When I left the cinema, I said to my wife, "I wouldn't give this movie anything more than a very generous 7". Since then some of the post-theatre-euphoria has worn off and the more I actually think about this movie, the lower the score becomes.
There are several reasons for this: the plot is derivative, I didn't care about any of the new characters, the characters that I DID care about, I only cared about because I know them from the original series, there were far too many convenient "coincidences" in the story and not enough background for any of the major factions (New Order? The Resistance? What happened to the Republic?). I also felt like overall the tone of the film was too comedic (lacked any real sense of drama, seriousness, or anticipation) and that the pacing was much, much too frenetic.
Now I find myself wondering if I had never seen the original series-- i.e. if I were a blank slate -- would this film even make sense? I'm not really sure. It certainly doesn't stand up well on its own, and neither does it fit particularly well within the scope of the Star Wars universe.
I tried my best to like this movie. I really, really wanted to; but in the end I think there was too much lazy writing on display and too many poor script choices.