I loved it, everyone's got opinions but it had just enough nostalgia for me and mostly likable characters.

My only complaint was them telling us Kylo lineage so early in the movie, I would have rather had that reveal be more shocking later.

Good, not great. It was an introduction, I felt like I just watched 1/3 of a movie.

Darth Maul was a cooler bad guy than Kylo Ren - but Kylo Ren is not a fully developed bad guy yet. In the next move he BETTER BE.

Your story is only as good as your bad guy.

Everything is set up for the next movie. IT will make or break the whole trilogy. If it is "meh" the whole series will be "meh" and it doesn't matter how good episode 9 is.

at the end, it should have been chewie consoling leia about hans demise not rey, a character who leia has never met! i can't believe that someone over looked that fact.....or am i missing something (which i don't think i am)

My friends had the same issue but I thought it was okay.

Leia sensed Han’s death, Rey witnessed the event/understood Leia’s connection to Han via force when she walked off the ship.

As lovable as Chewie is, he was super depressed. And it’s never wise to upset a wookie. I’m pretty sure wookie’s aren’t very good at consoling!

I felt like there was more to be explained here. Maybe Rey has met Leia before and the force let her know?

at the end, it should have been chewie consoling leia about hans demise not rey, a character who leia has never met! i can't believe that someone over looked that fact.....or am i missing something (which i don't think i am)

My friends had the same issue but I thought it was okay.

Leia sensed Han’s death, Rey witnessed the event/understood Leia’s connection to Han via force when she walked off the ship.

As lovable as Chewie is, he was super depressed. And it’s never wise to upset a wookie. I’m pretty sure wookie’s aren’t very good at consoling!

I felt like there was more to be explained here. Maybe Rey has met Leia before and the force let her know?

My feeling was that Han really was Rey's "long-lost father" and Ren's little sister, she was a youngling when Ren attacked and was either abandoned on Jakku by Luke or Ren, who couldn't bring himself to kill her. Han and Leia either believe she was killed with the other Jedi or figure Luke knows where she is. Either way, I feel certain that J.J.'s 'twist' is that the Son turns to the dark side (not the father) and the Sister has to redeem him (not the son). Just like how Into Darkness (which was just a rehash of Wrath of Khan) was 'innovative' by simply switching Kirk/Spock's sacrifice.

• I was a little underwhelmed by Kylo Ren/Ben, but maybe his character arc is one of growing from waffle-head into badass, rather than starting as badass and eventually being redeemed (ala Vader).

Agreed with everything else you said except this. I really enjoyed Kylo Ren, he is the first full fledged two faced bad guy we have seen. When he puts the helmet on he is confident, angry, a leader and bad ass. When he takes it off, he is unsure, seems weak, and confused. I thought the arc of him being two sided was great and played into the whole plot of him being Han's son really well.

Edit: Plus he has Force Freeze, and thats neat. Lastly, I liked that he's basically a very minimally trained Force User. And clearly bad with a lightsabre, but oh man, what a cool fight b/t him and Rey. Two untrained lightsabre users basically just brawling, tossing heavy blows as hard as they can. I loved the lack of finesse in their fighting styles, shows how untrained they are.

Overall, I really liked the film. The comedy was well done, the acting was phenom, and it felt like Star Wars the whole way through. Similar story to ANH, but with enough twists and new characters to make it great. I also love the way they introduced all the old characters throughout the film. Kinda surprised to hear how many people were disappointed with it.

at the end, it should have been chewie consoling leia about hans demise not rey, a character who leia has never met! i can't believe that someone over looked that fact.....or am i missing something (which i don't think i am)

My friends had the same issue but I thought it was okay.

Leia sensed Han’s death, Rey witnessed the event/understood Leia’s connection to Han via force when she walked off the ship.

As lovable as Chewie is, he was super depressed. And it’s never wise to upset a wookie. I’m pretty sure wookie’s aren’t very good at consoling!

I felt like there was more to be explained here. Maybe Rey has met Leia before and the force let her know?

My feeling was that Han really was Rey's "long-lost father" and Ren's little sister, she was a youngling when Ren attacked and was either abandoned on Jakku by Luke or Ren, who couldn't bring himself to kill her. Han and Leia either believe she was killed with the other Jedi or figure Luke knows where she is. Either way, I feel certain that J.J.'s 'twist' is that the Son turns to the dark side (not the father) and the Sister has to redeem him (not the son). Just like how Into Darkness (which was just a rehash of Wrath of Khan) was 'innovative' by simply switching Kirk/Spock's sacrifice.

I thought this too.

Imagine in Episode 8 an Epic, "You killed my family!", "No Rey, I am your brother!" scene.

I could see maybe Luke dumped her on Jakku and not just Han/Leia assuming she's dead otherwise I feel like Han would have picked up on it when he knew she was waiting for family on Jakku. The idea my wife and I were discussing, what if Luke was so ashamed of his failure that he wipe memories of Rey from Leia and Han's minds. Maybe Kylo couldn't kill his sister, so Luke dumped here there and tinkered with her brain (or PTSD did this), and he thought he could fix things and reunite her with her family later. 20 years later he's in exile over his embarrassment for how he manipulated the minds of his friends.

Obviously I love your theory.

Much hype (and way to read into my subliminal text).

I'm interested in what is going on politically. Just how powerful is the First Order and the Republic?

at the end, it should have been chewie consoling leia about hans demise not rey, a character who leia has never met! i can't believe that someone over looked that fact.....or am i missing something (which i don't think i am)

My friends had the same issue but I thought it was okay.

Leia sensed Han’s death, Rey witnessed the event/understood Leia’s connection to Han via force when she walked off the ship.

As lovable as Chewie is, he was super depressed. And it’s never wise to upset a wookie. I’m pretty sure wookie’s aren’t very good at consoling!

I felt like there was more to be explained here. Maybe Rey has met Leia before and the force let her know?

My feeling was that Han really was Rey's "long-lost father" and Ren's little sister, she was a youngling when Ren attacked and was either abandoned on Jakku by Luke or Ren, who couldn't bring himself to kill her. Han and Leia either believe she was killed with the other Jedi or figure Luke knows where she is. Either way, I feel certain that J.J.'s 'twist' is that the Son turns to the dark side (not the father) and the Sister has to redeem him (not the son). Just like how Into Darkness (which was just a rehash of Wrath of Khan) was 'innovative' by simply switching Kirk/Spock's sacrifice.

I thought this too.

Imagine in Episode 8 an Epic, "You killed my family!", "No Rey, I am your brother!" scene.

I could see maybe Luke dumped her on Jakku and not just Han/Leia assuming she's dead otherwise I feel like Han would have picked up on it when he knew she was waiting for family on Jakku. The idea my wife and I were discussing, what if Luke was so ashamed of his failure that he wipe memories of Rey from Leia and Han's minds. Maybe Kylo couldn't kill his sister, so Luke dumped here there and tinkered with her brain (or PTSD did this), and he thought he could fix things and reunite her with her family later. 20 years later he's in exile over his embarrassment for how he manipulated the minds of his friends.

Obviously I love your theory.

Much hype (and way to read into my subliminal text).

My suspicion is that Rey is Luke's daughter. the reasons for my thinking is remember the scene where Rey finds Luke's/Anakin's lightsaber? Maz Kanata then says something like, "That lightsaber belonged to Luke Skywalker and to his father before him. It now calls out to you?!"

There's also the part where Ren interrogates Rey and sees her memories of an ocean and an island. Fast forward to the final scene where Rey find Luke and you'll see where I'm going with this.

My suspicion is that Rey is Luke's daughter. the reasons for my thinking is remember the scene where Rey finds Luke's/Anakin's lightsaber? Maz Kanata then says something like, "That lightsaber belonged to Luke Skywalker and to his father before him. It now calls out to you?!"

There's also the part where Ren interrogates Rey and sees her memories of an ocean and an island. Fast forward to the final scene where Rey find Luke and you'll see where I'm going with this.

That was my suspicion as well, but you've backed it up more thoroughly than I had yet.

It would also make sense that Rey is Luke's daughter, since (1) the force is strong in the Skywalker family, and (2) Kylo Ren was surprised by how strong in the force Ren was. That isn't evidence that Ren is automatically a Skywalker, but it would make sense of things if she were.

Here's my thoughts on Kylo Ben - since a lot of people are upset with his abilities/not super powered enough.

Yea, I'm a little bugged by the up and down of his character.

But, he's obviously not well trained, he's prone to fits of rage and has very little control. The line dropped at the end of the movie with Snoke, that it's time to finish his training, helps explain a lot. It just was way late in the movie.

I also think being able to hear his thoughts, say hopefully in the book version, will help some to explain what's going on behind the scenes in such cases as the interrogation of Rey and the lightsaber battles with Finn and then Rey.

My biggest beef is that he can stop a blaster bolt mid air for 30 seconds or whatever and then has so much trouble later in some things. But bolt catching could just be his best trick that he's practiced the most. We do have to realize he's not Vader, who had 30+ years of training with the force in both sides. And we don't know how long Ren has been training.

Add on top of that the fact that he is struggling with his identity and light/dark side pull (he feels guilty that he's tempted to be good). I can't remember if it was someone on here or somewhere else that pointed out, when he has his helmet on he's in control/stronger and when he has it off he struggles a lot with his fears of not being strong enough, etc. But I think that is a good point.

All in all, the movie tried to fit a ton of new information into a short story and I think a lot of it will make more sense with more watchings and when we get background info and future stories.

And for a little perspective, at least the new bad guy survives his first movie, unlike Darth Maul, who made way less sense that he "died" in the first movie and all of his short comings.

On another note, in Rey's vision is Ren with the Knights in the future or when he rebelled against Luke in the past? If it's the future maybe it means he will put together a team of dark side users and he becomes strong enough to merit that. If it's the past maybe he's just one of a team of many that will be a bigger threat than he alone.

I'm also in the "really enjoyed it" camp (Although I agree with a lot of the things people had problems with).

Some things:

• On the "early revelations:" when the OT came out genre savvy was not a thing, now days it's difficult to keep a mystery going over the course of a film let alone between them. If ANH had just been released for the first time instead of TFA then "I bet Darth Vader is Luke's father" would already be all over the internet and then what does the film crew do?
• I really liked the characterization (more than I did in the OT to be frank).
• Someone said something about starkiller base being in the same system as the republic capital and the resistance base. To me it looked like the weapon was shooting across the galaxy (of course then theres the issue of how the resistance got there so fast).
• One of my pet peeves was the capture of Captain Phasma and how easily she buckled. What kind of evil fanatics does she work for that the immediate gun to her head is scary enough that she'll just give them exactly what they want? (It has been conveyed to me that there was probably some stuff edited out here, that's fair enough).

On another note, in Rey's vision is Ren with the Knights in the future or when he rebelled against Luke in the past? If it's the future maybe it means he will put together a team of dark side users and he becomes strong enough to merit that. If it's the past maybe he's just one of a team of many that will be a bigger threat than he alone.

There was an article/interview with JJ that mentioned his name Ren is actually a title, like Darth. And that it comes from the Knights of Ren, in which he was a part of. So I think its from the past. But, we don't know if they are still around in this Star Wars universe, they could be.

One of my pet peeves was the capture of Captain Phasma and how easily she buckled. What kind of evil fanatics does she work for that the immediate gun to her head is scary enough that she'll just give them exactly what they want? (It has been conveyed to me that there was probably some stuff edited out here, that's fair enough).

Oh man, totally forgot about her.

Basically the Boba Fett so far of this trilogy: looks cool (ish) and never really does anything. I don’t even think she fired a shot.

I was really hoping she had some neat tricks up her sleeve but so far she’s just a shiny stormtrooper.

There’s gotta to be more this character. I really like the theory floating around that she's Rey mother (which would explain why she disabled the shields so quickly).

But right now, bleh.

Helpless (Special action): give your opponent 5 victory points.

Oathkeeper (special action): perform a melee attack with one red die and one green die

One of my pet peeves was the capture of Captain Phasma and how easily she buckled. What kind of evil fanatics does she work for that the immediate gun to her head is scary enough that she'll just give them exactly what they want? (It has been conveyed to me that there was probably some stuff edited out here, that's fair enough).

There’s gotta to be more this character. I really like the theory floating around that she's Rey mother (which would explain why she disabled the shields so quickly).

Oooh, that's a thing, though the movie does not give much impression of her survival.

I read that Gwendolyn Christie (can't remember if that's the actress' name) said captain Phasma has a really good character arc over the progression of the trilogy. Implying that she at least knows somewhat where the character is going and honestly there just wasn't enough time to do much besides introduce a lot of characters, flesh out a few, give as much screen time as possible to the one saying goodbye, and wrap up the first chapter.

And I really liked the movie. I put it after 5, 6, then 7 then 4. Because to me this movie and the feelings I had watching it and reconnecting were what I would imagine watching episode 4 would have been like had I been alive. And it was all I wish episode 1 had been. Having read over a 100 books, this was the most satisfying non-original trilogy experience I've had because the openings of 1-3 were cool at the time but not as good obviously.

my personal take on everything episode 7

i'll start off with my positives before i work into the negatives

Positives:

Rey: a strong female lead character and one that has a great story that clearly needs to be told and the movie didn't do much to spoil it. i'm guessing she's likely Luke's child

Fin: probably my favorite new character, and if he's force sensitive (i can't recall if he actually had a force moment or not but i think so considering he went toe to toe with Kilo Ren) then he's due do be in constant pull of the dark path because he's clearly very emotional but hates the First Order

BB-8: another cute droid and has his moments and no star wars movie would be complete without some sort of cheese

Poe Dameron: crazy elite pilot and and all around ace of a guy, what's not to love about him?

Kilo Ren: for someone that's supposed to be a large part of control of the First order, this guy seems rather.. untrained and childish.. but here's hoping his character grows

I loved where the story of the movie was going and i wish it would have kept going until the movie took a weird and what i thought was a rushed ending

i believe the biggest strength to these new films will be if they focus directly on their new and strong characters

Negatives:

i'm going to start with the Ending. Now something about this whole last hour of the movie seemed off putting to me.. it felt like Jar Jar Abrams was trying to implement major nostalgia by combining both a new hope and return of the jedi into one stupid and boring ending

how many times do they have to make a larger and larger death star? gawd ****!

honestly they even set up for a potential major cliff hanger if they had chosen a different path.. Fin had no idea how to blow up the **** thing, he just took a wild guess and only did so because he wanted to get Rey back.. how crazy would have the movie had been if instead Fin and Rey find each other but the x-wing bombing run failed, and the majority of the Resistance was wiped out (carrie fisher included) leaving what remains of the resistance to run and hide in the shadows and slowly gain numbers again while Rey and Fin find Luke and begin their training to help bring balance back to the galaxy.. this type of plot would make for a great episode 8 follow up

but instead i found the ending very dull and at no point did i feel like the movie came to a climax.. it was just a sequence of little things that just sort of... well.. happened

secondly, where was the surprise knowing that Kilo Ren was Han's kid?.. instead of just announcing it to leia they could have built it up so that maybe they meet on that bridge face to face, and right before he kills Han the truth comes out. which would have actually shocked us to find out that not only was he Han's kid but that Han was just killed by his own son all in the span of a few seconds... minds would have been blown and it would have helped make this movie a lot better

as it stands as soon as i saw kilo ren walking across the bridge and han following after i immediately looked at my wife and said "this is where Han dies".. so predictable

third, i'm also on the fence about the way Rey and Luke met at the end.. it seemed like there were no good ideas on how they should meet up

Forth, while entertaining and funny, how Rey knew how to use the jedi mind trick on the guard trooper when she, A. didn't even know she had force powers to begin with and B. never had any training, i found it out of place and odd

all in all i give this movie a 5/10.. i'm not sure whether i like it or hate it.. i know the ending was terrible but the characters have so much potential to grow into something huge

but i know this much for sure.. they need a new director for episode 8.. JJ Abrams doesn't know how to tell a good story with depth and character.. this movie was shallow

I give it an 8/10.

The Good.

The plot was okay, though I felt I had seen it somewhere before, more on that later. The comedy portions were light hearted and well placed. Special Effects? Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. Han dying was actually a shock to me even though, as others have stated, it was known as soon as he stepped onto a thin bridge over nothingness with no railings (Seriously, what is it about railings that are so expensive in Star Wars?).

Know what was really good? The characters. For reasons, I found myself liking all the characters almost instantly. Most likely because they all share personality traits with the original Han, Luke, and Leia. I love that Finn is always in way over his head, and just does good to do good. Period. I love how cocky Poe is, just a giant bag of confidence that is oft sorely missing in today's protagonists. Rey... is almost boring by comparison being Luke the 2nd in almost every aspect, but still there's something about how she's presented that was making me root for her regardless.

"Well I don't know how, but we'll use the Force and blow it up."
"That's not how it works."
I think Finn is probably the new hero I like the most. So much energy.

I like Kylo Ren as the bad guy, and most assuredly am looking forward to more of him. A dark side character actually suffering because he feels drawn to the Light, that is different to me. (admittedly, I never read anything other than the Zahn books). He's raw and untrained and I look forward to seeing how he progresses. I'm glad that they at least took making one of the offspring of the great trio into an evil character. He's going to develop with his teachings (do people think that's Darth Plagueis?), but I want him constantly trying to defend himself against the light in order to make himself in the image of his grandfather. I love that his mask gives him strength. I absolutely love the lightsaber.

And for the original cast, they actually seemed to have lived in the time between Return and Awakens, with new histories, allies, and all other manner of things. My eyeballs were screaming for more information on what happened, and I hungrily lapped up the tidbits they dropped.


The Bad.

Just because this section is larger, please remember that I did like this movie, 8/10. Just that it's easier to talk in detail about the things I didn't like.

Unfortunately the film is good, not great. There were just too many 'little ticky-tack' things that took me directly out of the story and reminded me that I was sitting in the theater watching a movie that was written by writers and acted by actors. And a few of those times was like getting splashed in the face with blue milk.

Starkiller Base. Appropriately named. However... I feel that when we were introduced to the Death Star III, that the sense of awe and amazement that we should have felt was replaced by an overwhelming sense of 'eh'. They even said it in the shortest military planning meeting ever held. Paraphrased: "Well we'll just use one ship and hit a vulnerable spot and blow it up. It always works that way." I'm not sure what that line was supposed to be. Funny? It just seemed so ... 'been there, done that'.
But that's just the script-scene. What bothered me the most was the point that someone before me made. Starkiller Base is built into a planet. Can they move this planet? Because if not, and it takes an entire star to power the thing, the number of shots it can fire seems pretty limited. The way it was portrayed, I originally thought that it was firing across the galaxy in some kind of FTL weapon. However then Han and crew were able to see the shot, as it was happening, from what I can only assume was a planet in the same system. And since even in Star Wars, space is vast and the speed of light is still a constant (parsec), it left me with the completely strange feeling that this was all happening in a single star system, but of course that would be extremely ludicrous. So that completely jarred me back to my theater seat asking myself "How many people would have said that if that was in another system Han wouldn't be able to see that shot for years, and if it's the same system, then why bother firing the shots at all when you can just Suck Away The Star and watch the frozen planets spin haplessly away? So it's not in the same system and for some reason either nobody knows that lightspeed is actually slow compared to the vastness of space ... or they just didn't care and thought nobody else would either.

All trips take 6 minutes no matter how far you're going I guess.

As humorous as it was, Rey did suddenly and amazingly come into her Force powers. "And you will drop your blaster.", was funny, if I wasn't trying to figure out how she would have thought that was even possible. Yes, we are to believe that the stories of Luke were spread across the galaxy and, yes, she could have heard that story and figured she'd try it, but everything in every other movie would suggest that using the Force takes practice, training, and discipline. So while it did bring a smile to my face, it laced with confusion. And the lightsaber battles? As amazing as they were, I kept thinking to myself that it should be over in about 1 second, especially if the Force User actually wanted to kill the non-Force User. I get that Kylo was looking to not kill Rey, but that didn't seem to apply to Finn.

Jumping into lightspeed from inside the hangar of the other ship and dropping out of lightspeed inside a planet's atmosphere didn't bother me as much, just showed how much of a badass Han Solo is. Is.

Seriously. The question, at design, should be, "How can our superweapon be taken out?" If any answer comes anywhere close to, "A small ship could theoretically hit this vulnerable spot and then the whole thing will chain react...", back to the drawing board. For reals.

And spring boarding off of that, as has been said before, why did they feel it was necessary to effectively write A New Hope 2: Hope Harder. Action in the beginning to show how bad the Empire First Order is. Introduce a farm scavenger kid on a desert planet. The Empire First Order destroys their home outpost. The scavenger kid escapes the desert world on the Millenium Falcon. A little mixing, a little matching, and now we've got young heroes running around with Chewie and an old man through the Death Star III, on a mission to Save the Girl. A firing to show off the power of the Death Star III, trench run, and kablooie. Oh, also the Old Man dies. Which leads me to...

The Ugly.

As was said before, the third act was rushed. They had so much to fit in, and the one thing I wish they hadn't... was Solo's death. That was such a good thing they had going there, Han Solo and Leia Organa's son has turned evil. That moment, on the bridge, I cannot help but think that was a good idea pushed too soon. Imagine having that scene halfway through Episode 8, after we've seen the heartbreak that Ben brings to Han, and the love that Han still has for his son, as shown in not one but a handful of scenes. The way it was, well, kind of shoved in there (apparently we have to have our old man die near the end), it just seemed like Ford trying to get out of playing Solo as fast as possible. We didn't have time to get to know the older Han, the Han that resisted but eventually started hoping again that Ben wasn't out of reach. They should have saved that for the second movie and given us more. Yes, we needed to shift the limelight to our new heroes, but it just seemed too quick and too rushed.

On another note, in Rey's vision is Ren with the Knights in the future or when he rebelled against Luke in the past? If it's the future maybe it means he will put together a team of dark side users and he becomes strong enough to merit that. If it's the past maybe he's just one of a team of many that will be a bigger threat than he alone.

My guess is that that particular part of Rey's vision seeing Ren with his knights is in the past. I think this because when Rey resisted the interrogation and it was made known to Snoke, he (Snoke) said, "She resisted you?! The Master of the Knights of Ren?!"

i have a theory about the next movie. yes, using a Death Star-like super weapon is old, but i think it was used to signal a turning point. the Republic's center of power (capital and fleet) was destroyed by the Starkiller base. The First Order's seat of power was then in turn destroyed. So with both sides having lost what appears to be their most valuable assets, this dovetails nicely to introduce a story more focused around a Force struggle and not some technological superiority.

After all, remember in Episode 4 during the meeting with the Moffs, Darth Vader says:

"Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force."

So I'll keep it brief. Overall I really enjoyed it. Good pacing, good chemistry between actors, fun new droid.

While the plot is so recycled it's painful I did like that instead of a farmboy wanting to be a hero there is a deserter coward who wants to run and a scavenger who wants to stay on her crappy planet.

I really hope Rey is not related to any existing characters. Enough with the Skywalkers, there are other force users out there you know. Unless she is a great-niece of Obi-Wan's or something, that would be cool.

The real issue for me were the villains. I'm okay with Ben being sort of an angsty putz, but no characters stood out in the way Boba Fett, Vader, and even Darth Maul did. Also, their actions make no sense. Whereas in A New Hope it's enough to know the Empire is evil and the Rebellion is good, in this movie you really need to know the political score. Is the Republic the majority? If the First Order is the remnants of the Empire why are they following an alien? How long have they been a threat? What issues has the Republic had in the wake of the Empire's collapse? I hated the politics of the prequels but here we really needed some clarity in the scrolling script at the beginning to get a sense of the stakes.

Oh, and I am so happy to finally be done with that whole Sith there-are-always-two nonsense. The Knights of Ren as a unified force of evil force-users? Love it. Much better than the whole kill-your-master to take an apprentice who will just wind up killing you nonsense.

On another note, in Rey's vision is Ren with the Knights in the future or when he rebelled against Luke in the past? If it's the future maybe it means he will put together a team of dark side users and he becomes strong enough to merit that. If it's the past maybe he's just one of a team of many that will be a bigger threat than he alone.

My guess is that that particular part of Rey's vision seeing Ren with his knights is in the past. I think this because when Rey resisted the interrogation and it was made known to Snoke, he (Snoke) said, "She resisted you?! The Master of the Knights of Ren?!"

i have a theory about the next movie. yes, using a Death Star-like super weapon is old, but i think it was used to signal a turning point. the Republic's center of power (capital and fleet) was destroyed by the Starkiller base. The First Order's seat of power was then in turn destroyed. So with both sides having lost what appears to be their most valuable assets, this dovetails nicely to introduce a story more focused around a Force struggle and not some technological superiority.

After all, remember in Episode 4 during the meeting with the Moffs, Darth Vader says:

"Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force."

i never thought of it that way. thank you for that and you have given me a new look on the new movie and i hope the second time i watch it, i will enjoy it more

i have hoped for a better 8th installment anyways considering the new characters were already good to see as strong independent characters

Yeah, the speed of the superweapon bothered me a great deal, not so much in the cinema but this morning after thinking about it. Also, why does R2 suddenly wake up? It's almost a literal deus ex machina. There were some moments of really dodgy pacing and some crappy script, and Poe wasn't given space to... be anything. Plus fourteen other niggling things. But I definitely enjoyed it. It's not ROTJ quality, let alone ANH/ESB, but it was an acceptable addition to the lore, and I'd watch it again. Would I watch it another ten times? Hard to say at this point. Probably not. I hope that one of the new directors has something special going on and the new trilogy really goes places.

I personally enjoyed the film. A few things I hated, a few things I loved, but in general, just happy to be in a theater watching Star Wars. I have read tons of the novels, but had time to accept the fact that there for the most part ignoring that...though it still hurts, it seems to be the price of new movies. Anyway, some moments and thoughts on the film:

Did anyone else feel like cheering, as Imperial players, when the First Order storm troopers in the opening scene were actually accurate? It was amazing. Storm Troopers, killing people, taken names, and in general being, well, formidable. And later on, Finn gets totally owned by the trooper in a melee fight. Yeah, they still seem to miss the hero's a lot, and Han mows em down with style, but hey: improvement.

Screw starkiller base. I think everyone has chimed in on that, and agrees. And as others have said, whats the political state of the galaxy? Did the First Order really just blow up everything in the same system as Coruscant? (was that coruscant? or generic city planet?) Republic over? What?

As for Ben. I was kinda happy there was a dark solo still...and a kid named Ben. I think he has room to grow, at least I hope he does. He just needs to keep his mask on, as that makes him always seem much cooler. As for the whole light saber fight vs noobs, perhaps fight as good you would not, when hit by a bow-caster you have been. That thing packs a punch, and he was pretty obviously wounded and distracted by it, so perhaps we can forgive his lack of focus/skill a little.

hmmm. Lots of little things that could be picked at, but I think that in general, I enjoyed it and am excited to see where they go. Perhaps now that we have had a "Bridge" film, there will be some new cool story arcs that develop.

One of my pet peeves was the capture of Captain Phasma and how easily she buckled. What kind of evil fanatics does she work for that the immediate gun to her head is scary enough that she'll just give them exactly what they want? (It has been conveyed to me that there was probably some stuff edited out here, that's fair enough).

Oh man, totally forgot about her.

Basically the Boba Fett so far of this trilogy: looks cool (ish) and never really does anything. I don’t even think she fired a shot.

I was really hoping she had some neat tricks up her sleeve but so far she’s just a shiny stormtrooper.

There’s gotta to be more this character. I really like the theory floating around that she's Rey mother (which would explain why she disabled the shields so quickly).

But right now, bleh.

Helpless (Special action): give your opponent 5 victory points.

Oathkeeper (special action): perform a melee attack with one red die and one green die

You've gotta remember the Campaign too...IA isn't just Skirmish... unless they plan to split the cards into a campaign and skirmish again.

Then again, she also isn't a fully developed character.

On another note, in Rey's vision is Ren with the Knights in the future or when he rebelled against Luke in the past? If it's the future maybe it means he will put together a team of dark side users and he becomes strong enough to merit that. If it's the past maybe he's just one of a team of many that will be a bigger threat than he alone.

My guess is that that particular part of Rey's vision seeing Ren with his knights is in the past. I think this because when Rey resisted the interrogation and it was made known to Snoke, he (Snoke) said, "She resisted you?! The Master of the Knights of Ren?!"

just wanted to correct a mistake I made by misquoting Snoke. He did refer to Kylo Ren as the "Master of the Knights of Ren", but it was in the scene after it was found out BB-8 was in custody of Han.

on a different note, I noticed something from watching the movie again. during the flashbacks after Rey touches Luke's/Anakin's lightsaber, pay very close attention to the part where she's a little girl crying for someone not to leave; the voice and hand of the person that is clutching her arm appears to belong to Unkar Plutt (the salvage dealer Rey puts up with on Jakku). not sure if this is something that is significant or not, but wanted to point that out.

It was good. Not great. Definitely not as awesome as the OT, but atleast it wasn't the prequels. Some of the plot tried too hard to be like the original. Starkiller base was pretty dumb. Too much crammed into one movie. Empire > First Order

Best scene was easily when Kylo was having a tantrum and the the two stormtroopers stop and turn around.

PS. I'm more looking forward to Rogue One... described as the 'Saving Private Ryan' of Star Wars.

PPS. Keep the mask on Kylo... you look like a punk with it off and your lips are huge.