Cliffhangers stopped in the 1930s... or did they???

Rating: 9/10 (31 December 2015)

In respect of the many IMDb members who have covered familiar ground, I add only two comments
1. Note the writing credit -- Kasdan, one of the best known names in film history, and Abrams, a man more often associated with producing or directing. The fact is that Abrams may be the greatest living "deconstructive" writer on the planet, with an uncanny ability to reverse-engineer some of the most potent story lines in entertainment history, take them apart, discover what makes them tick, and then rebuild them on demand. We got a glimpse of this in the retro Star Trek he did -- the first fun Star Trek in years -- but never has it been clearer until this Star Wars. If you compare the two films, the first SW and this one, scene by scene and arc by arc -- AND I ASSURE YOU THAT JJ DID EXACTLY THAT -- the tension builds and the action escalates in exactly the same way. The man is a maestro of plot reconstruction. Steven Moffat and Joss Whedon should be nervous.
2. The in-your-face cliffhanger ending is unsettling. I understand it -- Hollywood and its corporate pals need to GUARANTEE how many tickets, cable sales, and merchandise sales the next one will do IN ADVANCE -- but it is still unsettling. Many internet articles have been written on how it is not government that is trying to control the common man, but actually the corporations. You can always toss out the politicians. But corporations by their nature are anonymous and forever. See the hit TV series Mr Robot. The ending, the lack of shame or humility ... is unsettling.
POSTSCRIPT (2 days after original review) -- just found out that this film will be fastest ticket in movie history to pass $1.0 billion in ticket sales and according to a blog from finance professor Aswath Damodaran the Star Wars franchise was ALREADY worth $10.0 billion to Disney, and that was before this beautifully executed bad boy was released. So my comment that the Cliffhanger ending will GUARANTEE the largest grossing sequel in history was not far off the mark...? To those half dozen IMDb members who enjoyed my review, thank you, and to the several hundred who were displeased because I did not focus on topics like "what happened to Jar Jar Binks" and instead talked about the actual business of film ... grow up. While you still can.