Not As Good as the Original Three, But Still Good

Rating: 9/10 (18 December 2015)

I just returned from the opening midnight showing of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I'd say first off that the movie seems pretty typical for a J.J. Abrams movie: strong on character development and action, but weak on plot. I'd say though that perhaps the plot had a little more strength than the typical Abrams movie, while the character development and especially the action didn't quite rise to Abrams' usual standards.
I found the most compelling character development to take place between Han and Leia. I also found that Abrams managed to imbue the movie with more than a sprinkling of the ironic humor that made the original three Star Wars movies so funny, easily surpassing what often seemed like forced humor in the three Star Wars prequels. The action, however, simply couldn't live up to the prequels, which featured what are still easily the two greatest live-action lightsaber duals in the Star Wars universe. I got the feeling that Abrams, who as I understand it grew up watching the original three, went out of his way to avoid his usual glaring plot holes and avoided going to the action extremes of the three prequels, to make The Force Awakens feel more like the original three.
Perhaps nothing successfully evoked the feel of the original Star Wars movies better than Abrams' use of John Williams' score, both the old and the new—providing at appropriate points a sense of sorry and longing, a sense for foreboding, or a sense of excitement. I literally laughed and cried. The very last scene of the movie left me with a tear that ran all the way down my left cheek.
The Force Awakens contained at least two major plot reveals, and set the stage for what I suspect might be an even more major plot reveal in Star Wars VIII: The Force Returns in 2017.
While my favorite parts involved the original Star Wars cast members, I found Daisy Ridley a fresh, young talent as the new heroine, and John Boyega wasn't bad as Finn either.
I'm not usually a big fan of 3D, but I thought Abrams made rare good use of it, like when a star destroyer suddenly appeared about to collide with my face.
I'm having trouble deciding whether I like The Force Awakens any better than the three prequel movies. While I hated Jar Jar Binks, I never otherwise disliked the prequels the way that many fans did. If I had to guess about other fans, I'd say that more of them will rank The Force Awakens below the original three but above the prequel than any other ranking among fans.