An amazing homage to New Hope

Rating: 9/10 (21 December 2015)

I was blown away by this movie, despite how obvious this was J.J. Abrams' homage to his love of the original Episode IV, A New Hope:

Desert Planet, check.

Lone poor abandoned character who dreams of the stars. Check. - Droid with secret message. Check. - Evil Darth Vader villain. Check. - Giant Death Star planet killer. Check. - Heroes use Millennium Falcon as their ride. Check. - Only hope is a desperate attack on the giant death star with x-wings, flying down a crevice/tunnel too, while heroes battle it out on station. Check.

Then we get his echoes of other movies. Ice Planet. Check. Confrontation on precarious bridge over a giant chasm, between father and son. Check.
So, with all my negative points above, you'd think I'd HATE this thing.
But I didn't.
Adam Driver needed to KEEP HIS MASK ON, for god's sake! He is WAY TOO PRETTY for an evil villain! CUT YOUR DAMN HAIR!!!!
And newbie kids figure out lightsabre dueling in five minutes. I'm an experienced swordsman and I'm sorry. That's just bat terd crazy.
I was also HUGELY DISAPPOINTED in how they treated Captain Fasma. Here is a brilliant actress, hugely hounorable and respected in GOT, hugely talented with weapons, and apparently so was Captain Fasma.
But instead you have her whimperingly lowering her own base's shields with a vague threat, and then thrown ignomiously into a trash compactor. REALLY??? I hope she refuses to do another movie for you.
But I loved Rey, despite her obvious parallels to Luke. Her acting was phenomenal, as was Finn, the stormtrooper with a heart of gold.
Po Dameron was an excellent hero character and I'm glad they resurrected him.
Loved lil' BB-8, more than R2-D2, and wish they had taken him along as their sidekick at the end of the movie. C-3PO just seemed old hat and was annoying.
Seeing Chewie with major parts, and how babyish he is when injured, was awesome.
My favorite part was Finn, with his buddy's bloody handprint on his mask, stumbling around the battlefield in horror. Never done before in Star Wars. They personalized the stormtroopers. Awesome.
Some of the x-wing battle flight scenes were crazy good. Wanted more.
The 3D was pointless, until the Star Destroyer was hovering in the theatre over me, then I was blown away and tried to touch it's nose.
Killing Han was HORRIFIC!!!! But necessary, and likely the only reason he agreed to do the movie. WHY OH WHY couldn't they have killed Leia too? Good God. What is wrong with her mouth?
Really, really wish they had chopped Adam Driver up into little eenie weeenie bits. He just doesn't work with the mask off. He is NO Darth Vader, but he was at least half that with his mask on. With it off, he just transformed into Severus Snape, was waiting for a potion to come out from under his cloak. Terrible choice for his character.