To put it all in one word, I would say "Disappointed"

Rating: 4/10 (21 December 2015)

From the beginning I was extremely excited to see the new Star Wars movie. The entire series (games, books, TV series, toys, and more) were a big part of life for since my childhood. They guided my dreams to reach space, led me to attempt an aerospace degree and eventually got me an internship at NASA. And that's not counting my Star Wars Jedi Outcast tattoo. So, it was bad enough that Disney made the decision that my childhood was now no longer Cannon, then to have this movie slap me, my wife, and two oldest boys in the face made me upset. The entire movie is filled with plot holes, unexplained events, and science far-fetched even for Star Wars. An apathetic-at-times performance from the veteran cast made it all the more disappointing. For starters, why is there a third death star? From a writing perspective, it's unimaginative and lazy, from a plot line perspective it's just plain dumb. The previous two failed with an entire fleet backing them up, not to mention bankrupting the entire Empire. Oh, by the way...there's more, it's an entire planet this time that somehow took less than 30 years to build, can suck the power from the sun and can shoot multiple planets at the same time. Next, why is the new empire basically a color version of WW2 Nazi footage? Seriously, they have a parade, a screaming leader, a giant flag, and a speech about taking over the universe. They even steal people and brainwash them to fight for them. (Which means the good guys are killing innocent people by the way) Then, they replaced Yoda with a new character named Maz Katana, who can't use the force, but seems like she can use the force and somehow has Luke's old lightsaber. She never really clicks as a character and isn't explained well. And that brings me to my next point, the cantina Maz operates. It's a cut and paste from Episode 4 cantina scene and was lazy writing. Im getting tired so I'll wrap up the last complaints. The entire movie takes place in one star system???? The New Republic isn't explained or showed, and why is the resistance (lazy writing and basically the Rebellion) separate from the Republic and only has a dozen x-wings? Why is a 60 year old princess the only general shown in the resistance? How can Finn use a lightsaber? Why does the only First Order Trooper with a stun baton find Finn and know who he is and beat him in a duel? Why does Ray learn how to use the force as good as a Jedi Master in a few minutes. Why does Kylo (Adam is terrible for this part by the way) get beat by Ray even though he has years of training and is in the Skywalker bloodline? Why is Ben Han and Leia's kid in this universe when he is Luke's son in the original universe? (lazy writing) Why was R2-D2 in low power mode? (lazy writing) Snoke is a new emperor, they didn't even try to be creative (more lazy writing)
I will say that i enjoyed some of the visual effects and the four newest stars were actually very good. And when i say the four newest stars, I of course mean Daisy, John, Oscar, and BB-8. Gwendoline Christie was underutilized and should have seen more screen time.