I thought it was a little overrated. Story-wise, it seemed lazy and made less sense than the prequels. I like the Rey character, but Ridley and Boyega have no chemistry. And the Kylo Ren actor was a miscast. No way someone that ugly and whiney could be the son of Han & Leia.

I think TFA was too fast and too loud. I wanted it to slow down for just a minute or two so I could absorb things. That said, I agree that Abrams can create likable characters with aplomb, and visually it is an absolute feast.

The "Star Trek" reboots are garbage. Their stories and character motivations make so little sense that it rips me out of the story. The first is slightly better than the second, but they're both visually appealing garbage.

The difference must be Lawrence Kasdan, as well as Abrams' actual affinity for the material. If he had a conscience, he would have turned down Star Trek in favor of someone who could do it justice.

I genuinely wish that I could share in your love and enthusiasm for The Force Awakens, but the film left me utterly cold and devoid of emotion. It fits in well with most of the ancillary stories that were created in the various books, comics, and video games that Disney recently dismissed as non-cannon. You know, the kind that just had a generic plot doctored up with Star Warsy stuff.

Sure, it was filled with all the obvious tropes and trappings of a Star Wars movie: ships (now with new paintjobs!, aliens (now back to men in obvious rubber suits - so retro it's cool again!), space battles, light sabers, blasters, stormtroopers, The Empire (err, First Order), the Rebellion (err, Resistance), etc. Throw in a few of the old characters for good measure, fill it with action, and voila: Star Wars!

But it didn't feel like Star Wars. It's impossible to get into all of the negatives without spoilers, so let's keep it general.

The film was lacking in scope. Never before has a Star Wars film felt so small or lacking in wonder. No new worlds or tech to make it feel grand. No new character archetypes to excite the audience (simply changing race or gender doesn't count). No surprising plot elements, but just a paint-by-number storyline that hits pretty much every generic point that any studio shill could come up with. No inspirational acts, just characters moving from point A to point B to point C to keep propelling the film going to it's inevitably bland conclusion.

Then there's the realization that the three main characters from the prior movies have all been reduced to a bunch of losers. That happy group celebrating at the end of Return of the Jedi? Pretty much a bunch of failures after that point. Maybe Leia accomplished something? Hard to say, since her character was reduced to little more than a clunky expository device.

As far as J.J. being a skilled crafter of movies, I keep thinking back to the parallels he draws with the Mystery Box he got from a magic shop as a child. It was filled with the promise of all kinds of mystical wonders. It was a box he left unopened, because the contents weren't the point, it was the anticipated surprise of what it held. He's carried that concept over into all of his movies.

Well, having seen that movies, and having been let down by the TV series Lost, which exemplified that philosophy, it's safe to say that we know what's in the box. A bunch of clichéd, plastic, rehashed tricks that we've all seen before. Not the kind that it takes the accomplished hands of a master to flourish into a grand spectacle, but the gimmicky kind that any kid can use to impress his friends. For two minutes. After which time they are immediately forgotten.

I was thrilled to hear that we would be getting new Star Wars films when these were announced a few years ago, and remained optimistic that they would continue to expand the universe we were ushered into decades ago. That didn't happen with this film.

I hope that the amazing financial success doesn't breed more of the same. Maybe the next films will more resemble Star Wars than a Pirates of the Caribbean movie set in space. Perhaps Rian Johnson can put the movie series back on course.

Why people rave about TFA. I did enjoy it, but was left a bit bored having seen A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. I get what you're saying about it all it had to do was not suck given the prequels. However, I've not seen them only the originals so I needed a bit more than a mere wiping of the slate clean.

The fact it was "ANH 2" was enough to rate it as "suck" . SRW1000 really nailed it IMO.

TFA is much like JJA... polished but largely unoriginal.

I won't say I won't watch them, but the sheen wears off all his movies so quickly. Even with the captivating qualities of Super 8, it was not long before I realized, "Oh, so this is how you make a Steven Spielberg movie." That in itself isn't an affront to the industry, I suppose. It's too bad, though, that good mimicry seems to be his main thing and not more.

What CAN be hurtful is on a more personal level. When the roles were reversed and the story retold in the "I have been and shall always be your friend" scene in Into Darkness, I wasn't amazed by the cleverness. I was upset that somebody thought it would be a neat idea to (1)borrow the moment that to this day still has emotional impact for me to try to give his movie some gravity and (2) steal that moment, trash it, and then try to convince me that that's the way the story goes from now on.

Similarly, if you're going to populate your Star Wars reboot (ahem... sequel) with the original characters played by the original actors, then you better well not kill off the sacred heroes of our youth in front of a cardboard backdrop. With silly jokes and hollow scenes. It hurts so much to say there is no more Han Solo when I see only Harrison Ford playing him. And that wasn't really Ford's fault.

Of course, it's not just J.J. Abrams, but the movie industry as a whole:

"The problem with the scientific power you're using is it didn't require any discipline to attain it. You read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn't earn the knowledge yourselves, so you don't take the responsibility for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could, and before you knew what you had, you patented it, packaged it, slapped in on a plastic lunch box, and now you want to sell it."