Spoiler review:
This is probably the most action filled of the entire series, the movie just roars along with chases and character clashes while balancing several threads nicely. It borrows lightly from what little plot ROTJ had, but there's enough fresh stuff in there to make it work.
It did require more quiet time in parts, e.g. they could have sacrificed the heavy action in the Casino sequence to give us some more character building. They missed a huge trick by not sending Poe along with Finn to build off their chemistry.
TFA made the great move of creating little moments shrouded with mystery such as Snoke, how Luke's saber got to Rey, The Jedi Temple, who are the Knights of Ren. Unfortunately not only do these tie up into a neat bow, they don't bother raising anything new.
Rey's parents in particular, it was a nice twist to write them as nobodies but now we've really created another Anakin Skywalker. There's nothing to look forward to.
Characters are a mixed bag. Rey is nicely done as she seeks answers about herself and from Luke. Mark Hamill apparently disagreed with the directors intentions with Luke but did his best to run with it. In my opinion it worked a treat to see a broken old man who lost his apprentice. Kylo Ren's character develops as the continuously tortured soul, but the movie makes the mistake of tossing his helmet out early which symbolized his duality.
Poe is fantastic fun to watch and gets ample screen time now, but man they drop the ball with Finn who was supposed to be the human element of it. Rose was a useless character when they could have gone with a lightly comedic Poe-Finn buddy routine.
The rest of the villains are very poorly handled; Snoke's intrigue is ruined as he's no more than a second Emperor after all, while Hux is a second Moff Tarkin and Captain Phasma is just nobody. Del Toro is introduced well but ultimately also brings nothing.
Luke goes down satisfyingly, using the force to project himself was something different and I liked it.
Visuals are amazing, some of the shots in particular the light speed jump into another ship are just extraordinary. The light saber duels are used sparingly (which is good) but never felt epic.
Yoda who was nicely thrown in, and that too a very deliberate nod to the original trilogy rather than the piece of crap prequel version.
Overall this was one of the more enjoyable and satisfying of the franchise, it main drawback being it had less depth and they’ll have to come up with something new next time around with all three of Luke, Leia and Han gone.
