The Good:
The special effects were great. Cool explosions, neat aerial combat.
Finn, Rey and Poe were all nice groundwork for a new round of heroes.
I most enjoyed the parallels between this film and A New Hope.
Nostalgia.
I liked the return to the more straight-forward lightsaber combat. It was very refreshing to this after years of high-flying-kung-fu fighting with lightsabers.
Chewbacca.
The Bad:
The plot was mediocre. Seemed a little too much like the original three for me. The Resistance IS the Rebellion. The First Order IS the Empire. Even the dichotomies within the bad guys and the good guys seemed all-too-familiar. And they blew up the Death Star AGAIN?!?!? I mean Starkiller Base.
It seemed broad-casted too much and "less real" when the big character died.
No one character really grabbed me (even though a few were nice starts to a character arc).
Overall: I would give the newest Star Wars a 7 X-Wings dog-fighting out of 10. Fun, but not great.
