The Perfect Diving Board for Jumping Back into the Star Wars Pool of Awesomesauce

Rating: 10/10 (29 June 2016)

**SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T SEEN THIS MOVIE. BUT REALLY, GO SEE THE MOVIE ALREADY**
I can understand where the critics are coming from here. And to an extent, and by that I mean one single point, I'll agree. The movie was an amalgamation of various points from the Original Trilogy. From the orphan on a desert planet, to the X-Wings and Tie Fighters, to the destruction of a giant planet destroying superweapon. There's no point in denying it. But what can be argued is what that exactly means.
Everybody will have you believe that TFA is an awful movie because it doesn't take any risks. "It's just a remake", "There's nothing original", "It's so boring", "We've seen it before". But ask yourself this:

What happened last time somebody took a risk with the Star Wars Universe?

The Prequels happened. The scrambled mess of a Trilogy, that has nearly objectively ruined Star Wars since before the turn of the century. So in comes J.J. Abrams, looking to take the helm of a newly Disney- bought Lucasfilm for its first big screen joyride. And he has a lot of rubbish to sift through. A decade and a half of stewing anger and a trilogy of widely recognized garbage, the third installment of which was more Original Trilogy fanservice and setup than anything. And what does he do?
The safest and most sensible thing he could possibly have done. He gave us The Force Awakens that we received. It was everything we knew and loved about Star Wars, the pre 21st century Star Wars, the Trilogy of films that has both inspired several generations of children and objectively changed the world. He knew that he needed to show the world that Star Wars was more than capable of being back in the high graces of the public on the big screen. And what better way to do that than to give us back the Star Wars that changed everything about scifi?
Yes, it may be a retelling of the Original Trilogy, a hodge podge of points from three movies we've all seen time and again:

A desert planet orphan (Luke then, Rey now)

A droid carrying information vital to the Resistance (Rebellion) that the First Order (Empire) is also after (R2-D2 then, BB-8 now)

The orphan protagonist finding himself/herself in the thick of the Resistance (Rebellion)

The death of the protagonist's old aged mentor/father figure (Obi- Wan then, Han Solo now)

The assault on the giant planet destroying superweapon (Death Stars I and II then, Starkiller Base now)

X- Wings and Tie Fighters used by either side

But that's nothing to be mad about. We needed this movie, as fans, because it is the first decent movie we've had since Return of the Jedi in the 80s. The Force Awakens was the smartest movie anybody could possibly have made, and it opens up more originality in Episodes 8 and 9 now that this movie has reused the Original Trilogy's assets.
The movie even introduces new concepts to the SW Universe, and improves on logic from the first movie. The mind search ability that Kylo Ren uses on both Poe and Rey is completely new, the ability to open doors by force and pry for secrets. But even Starkiller Base, "the unoriginal boring Death Star", is more logical than the Death Star. It was improved upon.
Starkiller Base did have an obvious weakness, its thermal oscillator, but it was needed. As it was explained, the oscillator was required to keep the Base itself safe from harnessing the power of the sun. The justification was given to us in the movie and made sense. It wasn't just some exhaust port that was there for no reason and was actually designed OUT of the second Death Star.
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So all in all, was it a brand new movie? No, not necessarily. It did borrow quite a bit from the Original Trilogy. Was it a bad movie because of it? No, absolutely not. It was an amazing movie, t brought us back into the Star Wars Universe that we knew can be amazing. It didn't offer any reference to the Prequels, as well it shouldn't have. I'm beyond excited for Episodes 8 and 9, they're going to be amazing.