an otherwise amazingly entertaining film with one glaring flaw

Rating: 8/10 (23 December 2015)

Everyone who has seen the movie knows its one huge flaw. But, other than the fact that it rips off plot elements from EpIV, why haven't more people noticed just how well done this movie really is?
First of all, casting was darn near perfect (with one exception). John Boyega is of course the star of the show, but Daisy Ridley is also captivating in every sense of the word. Oscar Isaac is probably next on the list of impressive new faces, in his swarthy- good-guy portrayal of Poe Dameron. I also enjoyed Domhnall Gleeson in the role of General Hux. Really, the only new guy I didn't like was Adam Driver, but as long as he keeps his mask on he should be fine in the next couple of films. The choice of old faces also came close to perfect. Let's be honest---everyone wants to see Han again, not so much Luke or Leia. And the film delivered exactly that, with a bit of Leia too I guess. C- 3PO was present as he must be, but blessedly low-key. Same with R2D2. The new non-human characters were great though, especially the new droid BB-8 and the aged Maz Kanata.
Then there is pacing. It is a long movie, and the ending perhaps lingers on for longer than it should have done. However, the first half of the movie seemed to me perfectly paced, and the second half was well-paced if not perfectly so. We could have probably used a bit of a longer dialog-driven lull about 1/2-to-2/3 into the film, to rest up for the climax.
The dialog was an entertaining blend of the quintessentially Star Wars and the quintessentially 21st-century blockbuster. An example of Star Wars dialog: "He almost killed me 6 times... which is okay!" An example of blockbuster dialog: "Is there a garage chute. Or trash compactor?" But most of it felt like Star Wars. I felt that Han's dialog was a bit cheesy sometimes, but no more than always happens in an action-adventure flick.
Then, of course, we have the visuals. Seriously, they were mind- boggling! But here, that one big flaw crept in a bit. We should have seen more of a blend of old and new, rather than the 90-95% old that we ended up seeing. Nevertheless, it was still an amazing visual experience, the whole way through.
Let me close this review by giving an analogy. In rock music, we have a drum beat, guitar, lead vocals, and a verse-chorus-verse- chorus-bridge-verse-chorus structure, or something almost identical to that. It is always better when a song breaks out of that mold, but we can still enjoy it when it doesn't. The beauty is in the execution, and the new frills added to it. In Star Wars, we have just that---a beautifully-executed film which fits a predetermined mold but adds some fantastic new frills.
That said, Abrams surely will learn from his mistake in this film. As everything else was so well done, I am very optimistic for the next two. And yes, I did enjoy this one too, despite the huge glaring flaw.