A Galaxy Far Far Away From the Originals...

Rating: 7/10 (20 December 2015)

*SPOILERS* The film alone is watchable, although there is certainly nothing remarkable about it whatsoever. I wont be re-seeing it. A major flaw with the movie is the rather poor story, which includes the usual Abrams plot holes and zero subtleties which are what hold peoples imagination as he seems on a mission that the everything be dumbed down to the lowest common denominator. That the plot actually shares many parts nearly identically with SW ANH cannot be denied, and it was probably done intentionally as a slight tribute/"re-dedication for a new generation" - oh yay!hooray for nostalgia!... or rather, how about a new story?! Character development: none. Yes, everyone knows they can't give the audience all the information, but really that lack of information on the back story in this film was bizarre and off-putting. The pacing: disjointed. Completely missing is the "Star Wars feel" with the intense battle of the Dark and Light side, that even the much-maligned prequels still manage (see "Duel of the Fates etc). Also, I cannot remember any of the soundtrack after seeing the movie - even the Phantom Menace featured unbelievable scores.
Among the most unforgivable of the film are the plot holes that will even have the casual Star Wars fans in disbelief:
Here are a few a can still remember: It's all well and good Disney and Abrams slapped the Star Wars fan base in the face by "un-canonizing" all of the Expanded Universe literature...but they can't use that excuse for this one

WHERE DID THE NEW Sith Lord come from? FROM THE MOVIES, we know there can only be 2 Sith at a time, so where was this rather old-looking and dark-side eroded master while the Emperor and Vader were around - who trained him?

-Luke Skywalker would never run away from a Sith that he is responsible for training, especially his nephew.
-a ZERO-trained very powerful force user - just nope...I mean, even Anakin Skywalker had to train and there was a Force prophecy about him!
-Non-force user non-clone storm trooper using a lightsaber for the first time rather spectacularly against a Sith trained by Luke Skywalker!
-non-trained powerful force user, also a lightsaber novice, also manages to defeat a trained Sith lord...folks, do we remember SW ANH where Vader strikes down Obi Wan or SW TPM, where Darth Maul strikes down Qui Gon and almost defeats Obi Wan - yeah, Force Awakens lightsaber duels are a total insult to those...
-Kylo Rens light saber not only looks like a joke, but it's design would actually lead to the saber's destruction during a duel as the perpendicular beams are emitted from nodes sticking out at the base of the main blade...ie. as soon as an opponents blade grinds down to the hilt it will be naturally directed to slicing into the lightsaber handle...and also nobody asked for a cheesy lightsaber...
Small squadron of old beat up fighters beating an Armada - nope
How does the resistance all of a sudden no where the weapon planet is? And why didn't they try to destroy it WAY before!!!
Aside from the lead, she was pretty good, the acting was sub-par, especially the actor going on about imaginary complaints about a black Storm Trooper...(it was ironic HE was the one making the biggest deal about it!). His "coming to morality" killing the village scene nearly ruined the movie for me it was so bad - not only the acting but the 3 finger blood streak was also lame cliché and looked really fake bad.
Acting:7 CGI:7 Soundtrack:6 Script:5 Plot:5.5 Character Development:4 Pacing:4
Who will bring balance to the Force now?