Let's put the fact straight: TFA is a rehash of A New Hope. If you're looking for a fresh argument this is not the movie for you.
That said, its execution is pretty good. Unlike Adams' Trek, where those of us who grow with Kirk & Co. find somewhat awkward to see the way the alternate timeline Kirk & Co behave, the new cast fuses quite well with the old one and those new characters are quite likable.
I liked very much Finn and the way he's introduced having a BSOD and humanizing the Stormtroopers, even if it's hard to think a captured Resistance ace would become friends so fastly with him. The same goes for the way it's introduced Kylo Ren, using the Force to freeze that blaster shot, it keeping going on after he departs. Both characters, especially the latter shows a lot of potential and remains to be seen after the messy way Kylo ended in the movie if he'll not become a Darth Vader Clone in the physical sense too. Rey goes on the same lines and I'd like Finn had the Character Development she had -the same goes for Hux, Phasma, and especially Snoke since he looks like the Big Bad- (but see below). Kylo killing his father Han Solo is the whammiest thing of the movie, showing how he has crossed the horizon and being more than a shock for those of us who loved good ol' Solo.
Special effects are very good too. CGI and Practical Effects mix very well, and the Used Future look we loved so much comes back with a vengeance after the shiny prequels. The very few new (not so new in some cases as the Resistance X-Wings) ship classes look cool as well as BB-8 and the new Stormtrooper armor. However I'd prefer to have seen a different design for that Special Forces TIE Fighter (Legends has many designs to choose from).
The movie is filled with ShoutOuts and references to the old Star Wars movies, that blend well too and help to the transition to this new saga.
On the negative side, this movie is (understarably) a textbook example of All There in the Manual since it's there were to learn more about what's going on in the Galaxy and about the background of the new characters. It also shows how the First Order seems to use the same engineers who built the Death Stars (Starkiller's Base weak point, the shield issue...) and Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale again (but this is Star Wars, after all, so no problem with it.)
A New Hope 2.0 (warning: spoilers ahead)
Let's put the fact straight: TFA is a rehash of A New Hope. If you're looking for a fresh argument this is not the movie for you.
That said, its execution is pretty good. Unlike Adams' Trek, where those of us who grow with Kirk & Co. find somewhat awkward to see the way the alternate timeline Kirk & Co behave, the new cast fuses quite well with the old one and those new characters are quite likable.
I liked very much Finn and the way he's introduced having a BSOD and humanizing the Stormtroopers, even if it's hard to think a captured Resistance ace would become friends so fastly with him. The same goes for the way it's introduced Kylo Ren, using the Force to freeze that blaster shot, it keeping going on after he departs. Both characters, especially the latter shows a lot of potential and remains to be seen after the messy way Kylo ended in the movie if he'll not become a Darth Vader Clone in the physical sense too. Rey goes on the same lines and I'd like Finn had the Character Development she had -the same goes for Hux, Phasma, and especially Snoke since he looks like the Big Bad- (but see below). Kylo killing his father Han Solo is the whammiest thing of the movie, showing how he has crossed the horizon and being more than a shock for those of us who loved good ol' Solo.
Special effects are very good too. CGI and Practical Effects mix very well, and the Used Future look we loved so much comes back with a vengeance after the shiny prequels. The very few new (not so new in some cases as the Resistance X-Wings) ship classes look cool as well as BB-8 and the new Stormtrooper armor. However I'd prefer to have seen a different design for that Special Forces TIE Fighter (Legends has many designs to choose from).
The movie is filled with ShoutOuts and references to the old Star Wars movies, that blend well too and help to the transition to this new saga.
On the negative side, this movie is (understarably) a textbook example of All There in the Manual since it's there were to learn more about what's going on in the Galaxy and about the background of the new characters. It also shows how the First Order seems to use the same engineers who built the Death Stars (Starkiller's Base weak point, the shield issue...) and Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale again (but this is Star Wars, after all, so no problem with it.)
Highly recommended.