A very solid entry into the Star Wars franchise

Rating: 8/10 (16 December 2015)

It's a Star Wars movie through and through. Fans (and others) can rejoice, this is a watch you won't regret.
Episode 7 has well done CGI and effects, great fighting and ship battle scenes and is an overall good experience.
That said and since I'd rather focus on the little bit of criticism I have (since much of the praise would really just end up in spoiling things), it is not quite without flaws. In my opinion they really went overboard with the references to the original trilogy. The first third or so of the movie is also full of silly and funny one-liners. Not a new thing for the franchise, but it does feel like it's a bit over the top.
The movie does leave you wondering about a few things and how it ended up that way, there are certainly a few plot holes.
As mentioned before, it is anything but unfamiliar. Many tropes you've long since known you'll once again find present and at some point it does make you wonder just how often they can keep doing it before it gets ridiculous.
All in all, a very solid entry. It'll take a while yet for it to settle with me and I don't think I'd end up rating it higher than episode 5 or maybe 6, but I do like it a lot and I'm thankful to JJ and the entire crew for doing such a good job. I hope the rest of the new trilogy will manage to keep the high level of quality.