Small story in a BIG UNIVERSE, and not just any universe - a Star Wars universe.

Rating: 7/10 (20 December 2015)

Hey everyone.
Like many people in reviews wrote in last few days, this is my first IMDb review too, because Star Wars was always special for me, above and beyond any other franchise, and always will be.
Well, what to say. I won't say that this movie is the worst movie I've seen, and I won't say that it is the best SW movie I've seen though, like any movie it has pros and cons. I really want to fully embrace this new SW movie that we all waited for like no movie before, to connect it to my special place for Star Wars in my heart&mind and allow this movie to expand that place. I think I succeeded in this mostly but, it was a rocky journey so far and it still isn't over. I suggest to everyone who knows what I'm talking about, not to reject this movie too early. Just try to go through it as many times as possible and give it a chance. SW7 has been done in a new way, for many, unexpected way, with new characters, new types of behaviors of characters never before seen in any SW episodes. Unexpected dialogs that almost instantly received verdict "non Star Wars". We must accept that the original trilogy is THE BEST OF THE BEST, and that we will NEVER AGAIN feel something like that while watching a SW movie. Never. Period. When you are able to accept that, means you are ready to accept something new, something that was done differently.
Since the celeb premiere of SW7 on 15th December 2015. I've seen SW7 three times so far last week (IMAX 1x, Real3D 2x), in order to capture details as much as possible and connect to his movie, like I open-heartedly did with its predecessors. Yes, as we heard millions of times these days, it really IS copy/paste of the basic plot concept from SW4:A New Hope, and I'd say that it was even further simplified for SW7, plus copy /paste of many elements of the original trilogy (SW4, SW5 and SW6), all with some altering of course. My strong belief is that this was done deliberately, in order to show that history repeats itself. There are tons of story ideas out there, movie could easily take any other course with its plot, but it didn't. However, the "history repeats itself" thingy was noticeably overdid which I disliked.
Liked and disliked about the movie, with tons of spoilers.
LIKED:
1. New main characters - basically I like all of them.
2. Old characters - so good to feel their vibe again.
3. CGI/Visuals - Needless to say. They were flawless, awesome.
4. Practical effects, real sets
5. Ligtsaber fight - done in the original trilogy way and not the prequel balletic dancing fast paced way. Moves were slower, more similar to original trilogy.
6. Humor - This SW movie brings the humor element back, which prequels definitely lacked.
DISLIKED:
1. Rathtars
2. Cantina scene is too brief - should include a fight of some kind, aliens in cantina should have been given some bigger depth, like in SW4
3. No bad ass bounty hunter in the movie, though there was definitely room in plot for one
4. Ending is incomplete. In SW4 for instance, we see Vader fly away in his TIE Advanced. We can assume that Captain Phasma bought it when the planet collapsed, and only Hux and Ren saved themselves? I bet the chrome trooper will be back. Holes. Instead, we see a brief scene with Luke, which should definitely take place in EPVIII, and last scene should be Rey, R2 and Chewie take off in the Falcon.
5. Kylo Ren raging is just something this movie could do just fine without. Yes he's a teenager who wears a mask and alters his voice just for the fun of it - we get it!
6. Supreme Leader Snoke - I just don't like this average CGI gollumish creature. I hope the story will justify his existence in an interesting way.
7. Force using - it definitely makes no sense that Finn actually makes a stand with light saber (??? we've seen non Force users using light saber only as a tool, like Han did in SW5 to "open up" a Taun Taun in order to save Luke and that's it), when Ren could Force push him to oblivion even easier than Rey with Finn not being Force sensitive (or Force pull light saber out of his hand), and Finn even manages to wound Kylo. OK, OK. Kylo was wounded by Chewie so he wasn't at top of his performance, but hey. Still. I also don't like we haven't seen any Force jump, Force speed, and such.
8. Overdoing the "history repeats itself" in the movie plot
I can feel all of us wanting to let this movie in our hearts & minds, lots of us are still processing it. Some of us dismissed it instantly. I believe that nevertheless, we will all go and see future Disney's everything Star Wars with our friends and family, and nothing can change that. I encourage everyone to give a chance to this movie, storyline, to be open-minded about it, and to try ae3nd enjoy it. People who watched 4,5,6 are not the target audience. Younger generations are. Let's not ruin that for them with our disappointment, but on the other hand let's make younger generations aware of where and how it all began, of true value of Star Wars, and why episodes 4,5 and 6 will always be the best of the best and why they have a special place in our Heards and Minds.
Thanks reader, for enduring my "wall of text" which resembles the stream of my feelings about "The Force Awakens" and Star Wars franchise itself. All the best!