Good flick!

Rating: 7/10 (30 December 2015)

Star Wars was, and always will be, space cowboys. If you accept this then you will enjoy this movie. It was a delightful bit of entertainment and a treat to see some of the old characters and how they grew over time.
Granted, there was some blatant re-hashing of past scenes but what do you expect when J.J. Abrams is at the helm; we all know how he butchered Star Trek. I groaned at one or two, and sat aghast at the audacity of a few others. I also found myself questioning some of the action scenes as implausible within the context like "why didn't he just use the force on Fin instead of his light saber?" Some of the story was predictable as a result. I found myself wondering if I should boycott J.J. Abrams entirely since he obviously thinks all movie- goers are brain-dead idiots...or at least Star Wars and Star Trek fans are now that I have seen what he has done with both franchises. (I have already decided I won't see another Star Trek movie unless they start making new stories and developing new characters and not try to spoon-feed me another version of Kirk and Spock.) Is it that J.J. Abrams has become a harbinger of the end of something, even though it makes a boat-load of money, or is he right in thinking the average movie-goer is an idiot?
If you are looking for great dialogue then you will have to look somewhere else. If you are looking for great character development, again, you will have to look somewhere else. If you are looking for real ingenuity in the script then you will have to look somewhere else. If you are looking for another Star Wars shoot 'em up and chase 'em up movie then you will have spent your money well as is always the case with this franchise. The pacing of the action scenes was good enough to over-shadow any faults with the script.
I would not go see it again but I came away thoroughly happy with the few hours I spent watching this movie.