A fantastic experience that reinvigorates the franchise.

Rating: 8/10 (28 March 2016)

The Force Awakens is proof that if you go into the theatre with moderate expectations, you will be blown away when it turns out great.
The first twenty minutes after the opening scene of the movie are the best part based on a pure storytelling standpoint. There is very little spoken dialogue by Rey, our main character but we still understand her. The excellent shot design shows us exactly when the movie is set, the state of the galaxy, our main character's motivations, personality, hopes and dreams. They do a fantastic job showing why we care about Rey with next to no exposition.
I've praised the first scenes of the movie, does that mean the rest feels lacklustre? Aside from a few scenes, no.
I enjoyed nearly every scene in the movie. Even the ones that didn't necessarily need to be there. I recall the first action scene after meeting Han Solo and Chewbacca, while fun it was entirely pointless for as long as it went on.
The action scenes were decent, but not great. This is the way it should be as Star Wars doesn't need to be The Avengers. At least not the main trilogy, feel free to switch it up for Rogue One! The main problem with the action scenes is they are mostly similar. Tie fighters attack the ground, there's some people there, things blow up. I would have liked to see some more creativity, but they were serviceable. It's worth mentioning that this movie is about the characters motivations rather than their actions.
The lightsaber fight on the other hand was awesome. I've seen people criticize that it wasn't choreographed or fancy enough. I disagree given the characters presented. They had a dirty fight for their lives without all the dancing and prancing we saw in the prequels. While I loved the Darth Maul fight scene in The Phantom Menace, we didn't need that style for this movie.
I would be lying if I said it didn't bring a couple tears to my face in certain scenes. Apart from being Star Wars, the imagery to go along with the characters is consistently spot on.
The characters save this movie in a big way. The casting is bang on for every single character. Daisy Ridley owns her casting and gives Rey a much appreciated personality, John Boyega puts on the upset performance of the movie and Oscar Isaac plays pulls off the perfect cross between Luke Skywalker and Han Solo in Poe Dameron.
Kylo Ren has been a point of contention among people. I think Adam Driver does a pretty good job with the character he is given. Kylo Ren is not supposed to be a a big bad villain, he's a troubled kid trying to rebel who got caught up in more than he wanted. He reminds me of Prince Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender, which is a huge compliment.
Luke was barely there, no comment.
Phasma, that durasteel clad soldier in all the trailers? Barely there, but I though that was a nice bait and switch to keep the plot secret.
BB-8 is gr8.
There are only two characters I thought could have been stronger. Leia (Solo? Organa?) was serviceable but Carrie Fisher didn't drop back in the role as well as Ford. I'm not sure I can blame her though, she's a very different person than she was in the 80's.
The other character is the only one I flat out disliked the entire idea behind, which sucks because he's the actual villain. Supreme Leader Snoke is the master of Kylo Ren, leader of the vicious First Order and most generic baddie this side of Mos Eisley. There is absolutely nothing interesting about this character so far. We know he's evil because he looks like the wrapping photo on a cigarette box and talks like he smoked the pack. Sidious had mystique around him, but they begin with an unhooded Snoke, stunting the reveal and have him do absolutely nothing to captivate an audience. He reminds me of all the Marvel Cinematic Universe villains I just can't remember. I hope that they have Andy Serkis do some spider wall crawling with multiple limbs or something in the next one.
Snoke is a very poor CGI job which is a shame considering the majority of the movie looks fantastic. This is mostly due to J.J. Abrams living up to his word and using real props. What an idea. The real suits and sets work extremely well with CGI touches to clean it up. More movies need to use this formula and I haven't been this impressed with practical effects since Hellboy II: The Golden Army. It does make certain non-practical effects look much worse especially when making living things, as evidenced by Snoke.
The set design is an absolute masterwork. Every location has so much detail and speaks to you like it has a history behind it. They varied up the locations enough too, with my favourite being a particular snowy forested place. Props to the people that made the props.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a compelling movie to all Star Wars fans that is sure to be remembered in the future. It's the type of movie I am looking forward to showing my kids one day so they can appreciate the same universe I did growing up. A love-letter to the original and passing of the lightsaber to a new generation. While it does have flaws, that's all part of the charm. I can fondly say that it gave me the same familiar feeling I had watching the originals as a kid.