The Star Wars movie we deserved, but not the one we needed!

Rating: 6/10 (23 December 2015)

If you are a Star Wars fan, give this movie a second viewing before you make a decision on it. Judge it like you would if 'Star Wars' wasn't in the title.
Overall The Force Awakens is an entertaining, but not groundbreaking movie. The new characters are great in it. Daisy Ridley is amazing as Rey, and definitely deserves more screen time to make it more about her. All the actors did fantastic jobs, and I was especially glad to see Chewbacca actually get a decent role. The fight scenes are well done and look amazing. The humor is well placed throughout the movie to keep it light-hearted.
Despite these things, I do not think this movie will be remembered or that in ten years anyone will care about it. There are a few major problems with this movie:
1) Movie is less about the story and more about the action. Episode VII sets us up for a new trilogy, and in my opinion it should have spent almost all its time on making us understand and care about the characters and what they are doing. There is plenty of time in the next two for explosions and lightsabers. The beginning of the film does a great job introducing Rey, but this is quickly swept under the rug to make room for more action scenes.
2) Answers too few questions/Tries too hard to not be the prequels. They avoided this at all costs, and went a little overboard on it. Sometimes things need an explanation for us to actually care about it. Who was that guy that just got killed? What was that planet they just blew up? Why are the Republic and the Resistance not the same thing? How did the First Order come around? Who is the stormtrooper with shiny armor? Who is hologram guy and why is he supposed to be scary? Why is Rey scaling that wall and going in that hole?
3) Story has too many conveniences. It is important to me that my space opera with laser swords and tentacle aliens be semi-believable. Obi-wan Kenobi said there was no such thing as luck, but that must have been a different galaxy because there is a lot going on in this movie!
4) Plot is basically a re-packaged New Hope. I keep debating with myself if this was done intentionally or if they thought no one would notice, but it still bothers me that they basically took A New Hope's script and changed the names of characters and places.
5) Natural talent with lightsabers/force?? The fact that Rey and Finn didn't immediately lose appendages after turning on a lightsaber without any kind of instruction blows my mind. I guess you can explain that Rey has her staff so is used to melee combat, and Finn may have been semi-trained as a stormtrooper. But a lightsaber, and a lightsaber duel is completely different and they should have been clueless. This may only bother me. Rey's ability to just start using the force is the most annoying part though. Luke had to be trained by Yoda (a revered Jedi Master) on Dagobah to learn simple things, yet Rey jumps into expert mode in a moment's notice.
Despite my long list of negatives, I did enjoy the movie and wish I could spend more time talking about what I did like without spoiling anything. I rate this as worth watching but nothing to get particularly excited about.