I finally got out to see it last night. It was very entertaining, but also an almost scene for scene rehash of A New Hope. Having practically worshiped A New Hope for over 30 years, it was nice to see that it could actually be improved upon by a competent director. I was afraid that I would have trouble following the action, given that it was directed by JJ Abrams, but that fear turned out to be unfounded. I could tell what was happening in every action scene, and man were there a lot of action scenes. The movie did not slow down until the very end, and I was so immersed that I could have easily sat there watching it for another hour.
A few things jumped out at me. Throughout the previews I was wondering how they were going to reconcile Finn being black and a Stormtrooper, given that the prequels tell us that Stormtroopers are all clones of Jango Fett. The explanation that Finn was taken from his family at a very young age (so young that he does not remember his name) worked out well for me, as I can now imagine that they are ignoring the prequel series almost entirely, and going with the original story line where Stormtroopers were NOT clones. Of course there are other possibilities, but this is the one I prefer to embrace unless and until they explain things more thoroughly in the upcoming movies. Feeding into this is also the attitude nearly everyone seems to have regarding the Jedi; that they are a myth. Jedi were so ubiquitous in the prequels that it would be hard to imagine that less than two generations later most people don't believe they ever existed. The only thing letting me down in this regard is Rey's nearly savant like ability with tech and piloting being a clear parallel to Annakin in Ep1.
Speaking of Rey, it has been debated a bit in this thread as to who her parents are. It won't be Han and Leia, as they would have revealed this when they met her, given their obvious concern with their son. That leaves us with Luke being her father, it is the simplest explanation as to why she is almost exactly like young Annakin, and some of her power awakening also mirrors Luke's early learning in The Empire Strikes Back before he meets Yoda. Also, her parents gave her into the care of someone else at a young age on a desert planet just like happened with Luke as a child. They seemed to have made a bad choice as to exactly who they gave her to, but this is a JJ Abrams film, so the thing that matters is that she was raised as an orphan on a desert planet. About as subtle as a 10 pound sledghammer to the skull with that one, JJ!
Now the interesting thing is Finn's ability to use the lightsaber. It may be more of an EU thing, but I think it is well established that only those who can use the force can use a lightsaber. Lightsabers operate using a crystal that focuses the force power of the person wielding them. Otherwise, everybody would be running around with a lightsaber, including that one stormtrooper who had some other kind of baton weapon on his arm when he fought Finn. Why use one of those if you can use an actual lightsaber, which is clearly superior? So, it seems that Finn can use the force as well, but it is highly doubtful that he is related to Han, Leia, Luke or Annakin. To me, this points to Kylo and Rey being Annakin's grandchildren, and Finn being a wildcard. If this series is as much about a family of force users as Disney is making it out to be, you don't need two of the three main characters having nothing to do with that family (if Poe is intended to be a main character throughout the series as well, that would make 3 out of 4, and that is just inconceivable).
The one big disappointment for me was the newer, bigger Death Star. Really? You couldn't think of anything else other than another Death Star? The First Order seems to be a pale imitation of the Empire, yet they are able to build a Death Star the size of a planet. I can't believe someone didn't step up at some point during the production and put a stop to that one. "Hey guys, the previous Death Stars proved to be the most colossal blunders of the Empire, and directly caused their downfall, why the hell would their successor want to build a third one? Anybody, anybody?"
Now, for the one thing I want to happen in the next movie. I think it would be absolutely awesome if, when we finally get to see Snoke in person, he is a little guy the size of Yoda, who has just been trying to fool everyone with his giant sized holograms.
