Depends heavily on ep.8 & 9/ Does not stand on its own

Rating: 3/10 (23 January 2016)

It was an unfortunate movie on many accounts; starting with excessive nostalgia-pandering. The only necessary elements from Lucas' framework that needed transferring were The Force (in it's ambiguous, mystical form), light sabers, Light vs Dark. I didn't need a droid beeping or X-Wings or "I have a bad feeling about this"-lines or a Milennium Falcon or Stormtroopers or....you know? I wanted a fresh story, new characters that ended up being involved in grand galactic struggle alongside our old heroes, instead they bluntly introduce terribly unsympathetic characters Rey/Finn/Poe and go "Here, your new heroes.". It doesn't work like that. I read the writers were struggling to incorporate Luke because the movie would be about him & people wouldn't notice new characters enough so they kept him out...CAPITAL MISTAKE. Yes, this movie should be Luke from the start as full Grandmaster on his academy, then you can bring in an impoverished girl that got attention by doing some Force-related stuff. Maybe over the course of a good 3 hr movie I start caring for her. Now our "heroin" has no start, no development, no depth...she just is. The actress is rather bad, over-the-top facial expressions, & a non-eloquent British ghetto accent. The movie is inundated in British accents by the way, it seems to be a Galaxy Far Far Away in Brompton. For reasons, she meets FN-2187 (Leias cell block...sigh Disney), who's best described as Ron Weasly black sitcom edition. He's the sidekick to the Princess in an animated feature. His arc makes no sense: Stormtrooper who gets anxiety attack (isn't this what military training uncovers?), then defects, sees Rey, and for rest of movie runs along like sexually excited moron spewing lies and jeopardizing lives. Poe is pointless as well, just a random ace pilot because the OT had 3 people as well I guess. The villains usually have it easier as they only need to be foreboding, ruthless & cool. Kylo Ren pulls it off and I found myself rooting for him rather quick. Later on Kylo becomes weak for plot reasons but I can't escape the feeling he's the hero and Rey the villain. That's how much Disney messed it up.
This movie also discards Han/Leia who are now old losers with kid that hates them, probably for same reason Luke got sidelined: focus on Rey & black. It's embarrassingly poor written and makes all struggles pointless. I suppose Rey will be the one standing on cliff 20 years from now: "I've failed, little Muhammed, it's up to you know"
The cinematography was poor due to JJ. I just don't think he is technically schooled because everything always looks like TV with him. Even simple action scenes are cut weird & look dumb. James Cameron & Peter Jackson do it much better, they also respect pacing, JJ only has the "Fast" pace. Music was not present in movie due to JJ's "loud" settings, I couldn't hear a thing. The film was also blurry, this is not my theater because I watched crisp Avatar here.
The plot focuses on you paying money for 8 & 9 because there is none...it is literally a teaser trailer with base images cut together. This could turn out brilliant if Rey is indeed going to turn Evil, Kylo gets his redemption & Luke/Snoke get big roles but that is all just speculating...that's all this movie is founded on. Speculating so you return for more speculating. I won't return, I'll click the internet to read the synopsis, I won't buy blu-ray either as there is no cinematography or notable journey.
Very disappointing.