Evidently some of the staff involved in the Time cover story were shown the first 20 minutes of the film. I don’t have the whole article, but Star Wars News Net posted a few excerpts and it confirms a few things that we pretty much already knew (Finn and Poe stealing the TIE, Rey hanging out with BB-8, etc.) No word on the lightsaber in space thing, which is really the only thing I’m still dying to know about for sure before I see it for myself next week.
Also, Vulture asked George what he thought of the film face to face (Kathleen Kennedy said he “really liked it”, but I didn’t put a ton of stock in that). His response was so passive aggressive I can really only grin and shake my head.
“I think the fans are going to love it,” he said. “It’s very much the kind of movie they’ve been looking for.”
Somehow, this makes me feel better than KK’s quotation. Full article here: http://www.vulture.com/2015/12/george-lucas-delivers-a-verdict-on-force-awakens.html?mid=twitter_vulture
Bahaha. Surely he followed up with, “I can’t believe I let those bastards finally get it.”