The following is a review that I originally wrote in 2015.
Was it perfect? No.
Was it basically a shot for shot retread of A New Hope? Yeah.
Did it under-develop characters and plots of almost everything interesting to near Boba Fett-ian levels? Sure.
Did the entire thing rely on about 47 ridiculously implausible complete coincidences that the story would have fallen apart without? Sounds accurate.
But after more than three decades, is Star Wars finally back? Damn right.
Apart from my just plain enjoying it, The Force Awakens makes me excited for the future of the franchise the first time in.. Well ever really. I liked the blend of new and old material, but I hope that moving forward, the series relies more on the new. I don't mean ditch all the original characters, I just mean we don't need endless callbacks to the past in Episode VIII. It worked fine for this one, and I totally get needing to re-acclimatise audiences, so I'm absolutely understanding of it in this case. But I hope they get away from that in future, and it seems very much as if that's the direction they're taking.