Thinly-veiled Nazi symbolism

Rating: 3/10 (2 January 2016)

The best part, the CGI effects. The worst part, the derivative plot which borrows from all the previous Star Wars (and even Star Trek) movies.
I would not consider this a spoiler but some people might so be forewarned.
From reading other reviews, it surprises me that so few people caught on to the Third Reich references. First Order? Third Reich? A hysterical ranting leader firing up the troops at a rally? For those who doubt, just check out starwars.wikia, where you'll find a quote directly from the director himself: "The First Order was created for the 2015 film Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens and was developed through conversations amongst the production team. According to J.J. Abrams, the film's director, the team wondered what would have happened if the Nazis who went into hiding in Argentina after World War II started working together again."
So there you have it. If this is your cup of tea, then pay the full admission. For myself, I was seriously about to nod off at just the moment that Harrison Ford made his entrance. He managed to keep me awake for a little while, but honestly this movie just did not hang together for me. Not even as much as Star Trek into Darkness.
For my money this summer's Mission Impossible Rogue Nation was much the better entertainment value, the former being a much tighter work of edge-of-your-seat film-making. Star Wars has some handsome young actors but a lot of gratuitous yelling and too many gratuitous scenes of weird aliens that we've seen before.