very very ordinary

Rating: 4/10 (28 December 2015)

SPOILERS AHEAD
I am truly baffled. This is patently not a good film; but it doesn't suck either. What it is, is a very very ordinary film. I'm torn between 4 or 5 out of ten. It does, however, take a giant d**p all over the lore of the Star Wars universe.
The Good
It looks and sounds nice; I think it does feel like a Star Wars film in this minimal sense. Considering the thinnest of the gruel, some of the acting is quite good (Ford, the two young protagonists). I didn't mind the fan service and some of the comic touches (although some did injure the drama).
The Bad
The 'plot' – are you kidding me? I refuse to believe that anyone could feel anything other than shame for this tedious cut and paste job. I think your average fan-fic writer could do significantly better than this. Actually, I think a couple o' dozen chimps could do better.
'That's not how the Force works'. Quite so. Moments after confirming the existence of the Force, Rey is performing Jedi mind tricks and murderlising Sith Lords (without years of tortuous training, or indeed any training whatever). It doesn't add up. They may explain it in later films, but a character this powerful is a total cop-out. A decent female lead was long overdue, but it should have been developed – AT ALL.
Why exactly did our new Sith Lord turn into an emohawk and a complete p@@@y? I thought he was doing a reasonable job beforehand. I won't criticise the actor, he made the best of a very bad hand.
Almost zero character development. The pace of the film is so quick that we don't get to know any of the characters. We get 15ish minutes of development for the two new protagonists and the main antagonist, and a sprinkling for the rest. A lot of the scenes felt really awkward and unnatural; the worst was Fin reuniting with the pilot guy.
I wonder if Han's walk down that bridge will be his last. We suspected that he was going die during the film, but this was just feeble. I rolled my eyes in the cinema; I wanted to boo (boo!). But the worst bit was that it didn't have any emotional impact. One of the most iconic heroes in film history dies and it barely seemed to have even happened.
The Indifferent
Oh the mysteries (i.e. unanswered questions). I don't actually mind this that much, but I think they probably did go a bit over the top. The dialogue isn't great, but it isn't total garbage. My conclusion: I won't be going to the cinema for the next one; I doubt Disney careI don't have kids to buy tat for. Come back George, all is forgiven. May the force be with you – always!