Somewhat of Remake, but loads of fun, has plot weaknesses

Rating: 8/10 (24 December 2015)

This movie was a blast to watch, but in all honesty, Mad Max: Fury Road was the best action movie of this year.
In many ways, Star Wars: the Force Awakens felt similar to Abrams' Star Trek. I thoroughly enjoyed ST, but it was an action movie with just the right amount of fan-service thrown in to keep the hardcore fans onboard. It was well directed, with fast-paced action, but there were many plot weaknesses. This is the same general feeling I had with Ep. 7.
As many have stated, there are too many plot similarities to not call this a remake. We're not just talking about repeated themes or tropes, we're talking about the whole basic plot of the movie.
I don't actually have a problem with this, and the way they connected it with original characters was sort of like the torch being handed off to a new generation.
However, there is a problem with how the plot elements are introduced. Just like in Star Trek, how we have "red matter" and "alternate timeline" thrown in sloppily and ridiculously in ways, here we have some really bad writing that just doesn't make sense.
Below are spoilers.
I'm sure many fans will have theories to explain these away, but based on Abrams' work on Star Trek, this was just lazy writing, and he'll probably hope that fans just ignore it as long as they can see pew-pew and 'splosions.
1) The primary plot device is a map to Luke Skywalker? OK, but the way this was presented visually was absurd. Why is R2D2 the only one with a map of the galaxy, and why is this big obvious chunk missing? How are all these ships flying all over the galaxy without navigational charts? It just didn't seem very compelling, almost like an eight year old wrote this part. Making it a two-part key was fine, but they should have used something other than a map of the galaxy with a huge chunk missing.
2) Rey just figures out all these force tricks. First, she thinks it's all a myth, then she's doing mind tricks and using telekinesis? What? The need for training is present throughout the franchise, so this doesn't make sense. Hopefully, they will explain this, but I doubt it.
3) Finn was too affable. On the one hand, John Boyega had good screen presence, and you were rooting for his character, which is fine. But it didn't fit his background story at all. He's supposed to be taken from childhood, have all individuality stripped from him, and be conditioned to be a drone. He has a crisis of conscience that pushes him to break off. A really cool concept for a Star Wars character, but with that backstory, he shouldn't be this instantly likable, sociable character.
4) At the beginning we see Kylo Ren hold a blaster bolt in mid-air, then later he gets his ass handed to him by a totally untrained force user and an ex-stormtrooper with a lightsaber? What? Nonsense.
5) In the original Star Wars (aka. ep IV), R2D2 is holding the plans to destroy the Empire's doomsday weapon. The plans he holds are the key to defeating the Empire.The beginning of the film and the climax are tied together neatly.
In The Force Awakens, BB-8 has a map to Luke Skywalker, which is important, because he's Luke Skywalker. But he doesn't show up until the very last minute and just stands there. Instead, we get a bigger-badder Death Star, just because. Han even says "So? It's bigger," a sentiment shared with the audience. They actually do a size comparison in the movie just so you see that it is bigger. How did the remnants of the Empire get the resources to build something even bigger and more powerful than the previous two death stars combined? It doesn't matter, because fans want to see a death star fight.
When they decide to destroy the starkiller planet, some pilot says "there's gotta be some thermal oscillator or something", and then they proceed to just figure out how to destroy this massive death machine. It was fun to watch, but it was obviously just thrown in to give the fans what they wanted as it made no sense whatsoever. A planet that eats stars? It would cause a hell of a lot more damage than just destroying a couple planets.
Anyways, despite these plot problems and sloppy writing that is to be expected of a hack like Abrams', it is a fun film that will be enjoyable to fans. The best part is there is barely any reference to the prequels, so OT fans can just pretend they never happened.