This is not the sequel you are looking for

Rating: 6/10 (18 December 2015)

I was very excited to see this movie, and very hopeful of JJ Abrams and what he could bring to the franchise.
POSITIVES:
The film looks gorgeous. The costumes, the settings, and the effects all are excellent to view on screen. The use of real sets and props drew me in before I viewed the film, and they did not disappoint.
Rey and Finn are fantastic actors and their performances were great. I am excited for Rey to be the main character of the trilogy.
It's entertaining to watch. The action, the plot, and the characters are all good enough to make a solid film.
Han Solo was my favorite part of The Force Awakens. His scenes were nostalgic of the old trilogy, and gave comedy relief.
CRITICISMS:
First and foremost, and surprisingly this bothered me the most: close-up shots. So. Many. Close-ups.
A close-up is typically used to emphasize significance in a character, either for that scene or in general. However, nearly every shot with a character in it starts at a medium distance, and either follows or cuts to a close-up of their face. Because the camera was so close to the characters the whole time, I never got a strong grasp of the settings that the characters were in beyond a sense of knowing where they were.
Even the non-essential characters had close-up shots. If they had a single line, there was a good chance they had a close-up on their face while saying it. Apparently it was necessary to give absolute attention to any character that speaks, even First Order Technician #3 when he gives a basic status report, or Resistance Officer #2 and 3 when they pitch their opinions on the size of the Starkiller Base.
This style of filming was in constant motion. We hardly get a break through the entire film, as the camera is always moving, shaking, and cutting to the next shot. The result of this editing is one long, shaky, and hectic narrative. There is no plateau where the tensions can brood. Scenes don't tend to hang around too long. The film is afraid to slow down for a few seconds, and as a result no tension or emotional connections have time to build up. I loved the characters, but I didn't become as attached as I'd have liked because they were already jumping from one place to the next.
Remember in Episode IV and VI when the ships come in for attack? The camera "hangs" there, building suspense and letting us take in the scale of the battle that is to come. We see the few ships assaulting the first Death Star, and then in VI we see the massive fleet rush in from hyperspace and slowly gain on the second Death Star. In this film, the space action gives you no time to take things in. For some reason, every ship HAS to pass in front of the camera and rush by. We don't get a long following shot of the action like in VI or the opening of III. Just shaky bits of every ship flying in front of the camera amidst blasters and explosions.
I wish that was all I had problems with, but there were also glaring plot holes and flaws in character developments, and ultimately, the choice of the narrative as a whole. For brevity's sake, I will focus on the biggest ones.
I was underwhelmed by the twist of the film: Kylo Ren being Ben Solo, son of Han and Leia. This could have been extremely powerful if this information was withheld until Han's confrontation, and if Kylo's mask was only removed during that same scene. I felt that the entire interrogation scene between Kylo and Rey was insignificant, and only raised questions over how Rey knew how to read Kylo's mind, and later how to imitate the exact technique that Ben Kenobi used in IV.
In addition, and I sadly admit, I felt nothing when Han died. I only felt terrible that an iconic character was tragically killed off, but his death had little meaning for me, and I can explain why:
Kylo seems conflicted when Han confronts him. He is clearly distraught and in conflict, and I was surprised when he seemed to be won over so easily, but I liked it. I like Kylo's character, and I wanted to see him return to Han and Leia, despite not knowing the backstory. But then Kylo's face turns cold and emotionless, and he stares into Han's desperate expression before shrugging him off of the bridge. All the complexity added to his character and the conflict was thrown out, because Kylo was only putting on an act. I sympathized with his character, and from a story-telling perspective, I would have sympathized with him if he hesitantly and sorrowfully killed Han. But instead, he was made to seem like a psychopathic, cold- blooded killer, which simplified his character for the worse.
EDIT: After discussion and thought, I believe that he changes his mind after the sun is drained and the weapon is ready. The realization that victory is within his grasp pulls him over. This scene does not make that clear.
Overall, I think this movie is okay. It's not bad, it's not terrible, but it's not good either. I can overlook some of the missing details (C3PO's inexplicable red arm, that get's replaced in the end?), but the letdown for me was that The Force Awakens did not feel like Star Wars should. It had fantastic characters, a great story (a bit too much borrowed from A New Hope), and great visual effects that all made this fun to watch, but I could only see it as another movie that was average at best, not a true successor to the original Star Wars.