Star Wars (ALL SPOILERS)

... are you sure you didn't sneak in to Point Break? I seriously can't tell if you're trolling with this. Subjectively I could see your argument with the acting, or the plot, or maybe with the way the story is being told, but if you're saying it didn't even have good special effects I think you're yanking my chain.

There are some parts that I wish weren't done as conveniently as they were, and many of the articles about plot holes complain that part one of a trilogy isn't a completely self-contained story rather than identifying plot holes. Now, my thoughts on all of this will change significantly if I come out of episode viii finding that they remade Empire.

No Not Trolling.
In full disclosure, I had the worst seats. Front row far side. So that may account for what I thought was Meh effects.
I just don't see why fans are ok with it.? What about it was GREAT! If Fans (movie or Star War fans) said it was Ok I'd be ok with that.
But 1Billion in sales!!!
I have 3 main complaints.
1- why is there a Resistances? Are they working for the Senate? Why is Leia leading resistance Many years later?
2- when BB8 is what I consider the Best actor, there's a problem (ok, Rey was good and carried the film for me).
3- Why was there a need to Recycle so many Scene's? If your going to do that they better be Better then the original.

Really not trying to troll. I just find this interesting.

So one of the best surprises for me was how they played up Finn with the lightsaber in the trailers (I didn't watch anything after the teaser and first official trailer, though, so if marketing spoiled that one for you I'm sorry) and then it ended up being Rey in the final battle. I thought the principles (short Oscar Isaac, oddly, and Boyega) were excellent, and I'm looking forward to seeing Kylo and Rey develop as characters, which makes me more than happy with the first of a trilogy.

1. This is a solid point brought up in many places. I think this is something we'll see developed in the next movie, because it's clear a lot has happened in 30 years. It seems that they salvaged the remainders of the imperial army after they got bested by teddy bears, and for a while this would seem to have been fine, they were protecting the interests of the Senate or whatever, and then Ben defects from Luke and The First Order pops up to continue where the Emperor and Vader left off, at which point I would guess a new resistance was formed. Why this would come to be Leia's responsibility, I don't know, though I've read somewhere that she went from Princess to Senator, which would have put her in a position of leadership just like her adopted father.

2. Given how early in her career this movie is occurring, Daisy Ridley was exceptional in this movie, and I think Adam Driver did a great job for what screen-time he had out of the mask. I mentioned Isaac and Boyega above, though I did appreciate the "more-fun" tone of Finn. I don't think anyone was terrible, Domhnall Gleason was great, Andy Serkis was Gollum, Ford put in a better performance than he's done in years, Fisher was a bit stilted but she also looked like she was hurt when she was walking around. Chewbacca got the best role he's had since Empire, though it's hard to call something good acting when there aren't facial expressions involved. BB-8 was really well done, Abrams finally got his Bad Robot on screen.

3. This is my main complaint. As I said, if VIII recycles Empire, then it will change this opinion, but here's why there are so many thematic repeats, in my opinion: This is the first part of a trilogy, that is itself one part of a trilogy of trilogies (though there are rumors that Disney is ignoring 1-3, but Abrams got Ewan McGregor to do a little bit of voice acting). Since this is the story of a family, basically, you see that history has a tendency to repeat itself, and the depth of a character arc comes from their ability to change the mistakes of the past, which opens up a sort of shorthand for the filmmaker to work with. It's like any complaint people have about seeing Bruce Wayne's parents die on-screen every time they change the damn actor playing Batman. By doing this, they have established how the new characters work into the existing mythos without having to tell their full backstory (which Disney is fully prepared and working on doing) within the context of the main film. So essentially, I believe it to be a storytelling device rather than absolute laziness. With this movie they had to re-establish what Star Wars is as a brand, make something that would top $1bn at the box office (Abrams only had to wait 12 days to breathe), and also attempt to establish enough content to fill at least two additional films with an interesting character arc for the new characters. This is why I'm happy with it, which far outweighs my complaints with death star 3.0 or any of the other potentially derivative parts.

I fully believe that this captures the magic of the original films, without the need to play it exceptionally dark like most movies these days. It fits very well with the tone coming off of Return of the Jedi, and is more exciting than the entirety of Episodes I and II before they even start up the engines on the Millennium Falcon. Hopefully that helps you see how I, as a moderate Star Wars fan (movies only, I wouldn't even say I've really played the extended universe games, let alone read books or comics, etc), reconcile The Force Awakens.

exophobe
Thanks! Much of that makes sense.