Entertaining, but not great

Rating: 7/10 (10 January 2016)

First off I will say the film was entertaining overall, the effects were excellent and the appearance of Han and Chewie added a lot to the film as a whole. It does feel like Star Wars. So in terms of being worth the price of admission, it is.
Now having said that, the film is flawed in many ways.
The story is unoriginal. From the lost hunted droid on a desert planet to the death of a major character for character building purposes to the star killer base. Echoes of A New Hope are everywhere and blatant.
The new characters are also an issue. Rey, Finn and Poe are supposed to carry the new trilogy against the might of Ren, Hux, Phasma, and Snoke.
Rey is being described a lot recently as a Mary Sue. If you look up what that is you will find that the description is largely fair. The character is OK if not very well developed at this point. However what really hurts this character is her largely unbelievable growth in the force skill in the second half of the film.
Finn's behavior and motivations do not match his limited history as a stolen child brought up as a stormtrooper. He simply doesn't feel right. He is some of the comic relief of the film. However the character becomes annoying after awhile and he doesn't seem essential at all to the film.
Poe is an ace pilot for the Resistance. That's pretty much it. He isn't developed much beyond that other than he is the owner of the BB8 droid you saw so much of in the previews.
Han really helped carry this film for these characters.
As for Kylo Ren as the big bad. He starts off strong but is weakened through out the film. He is a conflicted character which is fine. But by the end of the film you questions whether he should have been the primary villain.
Hux is merely an important First Order Officer. He is like all the imperial officers you have seen in the past except given more importance in the narrative. He may become a bigger character in time as he clearly has a rivalry with Ren.
Phasma wears shiny stormtrooper armor and is a girl. That's pretty much her character. She is basically pointless and is literally thrown in the trash during the movie.
Snoke is the supreme leader of the First Order and the one that turned Ren. He is only seen as a oversized hologram and appears to be a CGI creation. He is some kind of a dark force user but you see little of him.
The characters are simply not as strong as OT.
There are other areas of weakness, but one of the biggest in this film probably features the worst lightsaber duel in all 7 films and it is this moment that undermines Ren and Rey's characters the most and pulls you out of the film. It simply not believable Rey would have been able to defeat Ren. Ren was severely injured and I get that and he fought Finn first which actually doesn't help because that was a joke as well. Finn wouldn't have survived a second trying to fight saber to saber with jedi/siths that have been seen in the past. To put it plainly, it was ridiculous.
Having said all that and not having said everything I still enjoyed the film as a whole. I have hope the next two will flesh out the characters better and maybe fix some of the weaker points of this film. In the overall scheme of things this is the 4th best Star Wars film, below ROTJ and slightly above ROTS. I do recommend it.