Better than the prequel trilogy

Rating: 7/10 (30 December 2015)

The good:

Harrison Ford

Chewie

Droids

Harrison Ford again

The writing really felt like Star Wars again, for the most part. The introduction of the Millennium Falcon was a particularly nice segway.

Rey is less annoying than Luke from Episode IV. Seriously hope she continues to grow as a character.

The bad:

Harrison Ford's death scene sucks. It has no real purpose, and really comes off like the death scenes TV actors have to film in case they negotiate for too much money. Bringing him back would be total non-canon and probably garbage, but try it anyway.

Harrison Ford was being set up as a latent force user, especially with that blind "force shot" with the blaster, and the strength of the force in his son. This foreshadowing of a potential storyline could have been incredibly interesting. Is lost opportunity.

Kylo Ren appears to be following the Hayden Christensen school of acting/writing. This is not good. The prequel trilogy was horribly written, and following it will only yield bad things. What's most notably bad is the entire franchise seems scared to write a relatable bad guy, starting with the prequel trilogy. In the original trilogy, even a Sith Lord (Vader) who chokes out generals for incompetence has some good in him (saving Luke). Kylo could very easily be one dimensional and trash the entire sequel trilogy, but we haven't seen enough of him to be sure.