Star Wars fan: Is it a sequel? A remake? A parody? Is this even Star Wars?

Rating: 1/10 (6 January 2016)

I am a mediocre Star Wars fan. This is not a hate review. But Ep VII really is not a good movie.
My review:
1. Key parts of the plot and the motives are just shameless 1 : 1 copies of the classic trilogy. Any fanzine story (let alone all the E.U. novels) could have delivered better and fresh ideas.
2. Really bad "bad guy" characterization:

The main villain is basically a Vader-rip-off with a far weaker mind and weaker powers. I can't take him serious at all, for me he's just Dark Helmet, the emo version. Surely Darth Maul was by far a better villain!

The big evil master-mind is an Emperor rip-off and nothing more than a one-dimensional CGI hologram. We know nothing about him. Who is he, how did he come to power?

3. Bad character development:

Waste of one of the best characters / actors of the entire franchise.

Although I like the character of Finn "as is" during the movie, its initial motives and development seems so illogical and contradictory to the overall back-story, I think it would have been better to just introduce him as yet another rebel guy from, whatever, Naboo.

What's the purpose of introducing BB the robot? Poe could just have taken R2 with him rather than BB, then it would also have been R2 to deliver the message, and there would have been no need for the ridiculous "R2-D2 is currently in hibernation, please try again later" thing.

4. The setting is really boring.
If there was one thing the prequel trilogy did right, then it was building up a big, deep, living galaxy which existed around the planets of the classic trilogy and which captured my imagination and fascination for the franchise as a kid. In VII, there's nothing more of that. We just visit a couple of planets which are either rip-offs of classic trilogy planets or just average sci-fi worlds. There's nothing special about these planets, and I forgot all of their names immediately:

a Tattooine clone

a wood planet

an alpine planet (turned into a battle station).

5. No mention of the events since IV which lead to the current situation, except for a few hints and the lead character's stories.
We can only guess that the Republic has been restored, but where does the 1st Order draw its power and its immense military resources from? How is it linked to the former Empire? Most importantly, where does the new super weapon come from? When did they build that? How? Why, if the Rebels are supported by the renewed Republic, do they still only have guerilla forces and fight with hit-and-run tactics? Also, what about the "Force Ghosts" concept? I thought these guys are somehow still around? Couldn't Anakin just tell his story to his grandson to make him stop the sh*t he's doing; and couldn't Obi-Wan contact Luke to tell him to come back to help his friends?
6. Awful plot holes:

Even though Star Wars isn't exactly well-known for its accuracy when it comes to the laws of physics, now the Star Destroyer is just way over the top. A planet which can suck the energy of a star, storing it in its core, wandering in between solar systems, and then shooting an energy bean which somehow magically splits up to precisely destroy multiple planets / moons in a system? Apart from the obvious break in "Death Star destruction" story continuity, this does not make sense in any universe.

With the first shot, they apparently "destroy the Republic". Isn't the Republic supposed to consist of thousands of Systems? Even if the Senate would get wiped out, there would simply be a re-election I suppose. Also, what were these planets / moons that got destroyed in that CGI explosion effect? Why doesn't any of the Rebel protagonists seem to be shaken by the loss of billions of lives?

I may have horribly missed the point here, but what actually is "the awakening" referred to in the title? Actually, the Force seems to merely play a marginal part in the movie. You can learn it without being taught by a Master, non-Force-users can use a light saber, and Force mind-reading tricks do hardly ever work.

Also, it remains a complete mystery (even more so for a new audience) why that old eremite named Luke is the only single hope now to restore peace and justice (once again) and why he didn't just leave an emergency address. Speaking of which, where does the new information about his whereabouts come from exactly?

Finally, there are a few things the movie does well: The movie score, the CGI / 3D effects, the Han Solo / Chewie team play.
Conclusion:
The more I think about this movie, the worse it becomes. I watched it back on day 2 after release, but I wasn't able to write down my impressions until now. I cannot imagine enjoying watching it a second time, let alone adding it to my annual Star Wars marathon. For me, this movie really destroyed the franchise. I'm not interested to learn more about the shaky, ridiculous storyline and the new characters they introduced with this movie. For me, Star Wars will just consist of George Lucas' parts from now on, pretending this last movie never happened. I will not watch VIII / IX when they hit the cinemas.
Rating:
I give this movie a rating of 1/10 in an attempt to "bring balance to the Force", opposing all the obvious fan-boy / buy-in 10/10 ratings. An honest rating would be 5/10 because its story is ripped off and flawed, and everything else really is just average.