I just saw it and the worst I can say is that it didn’t blow me away, so at least that’s something. Then again, like most people here, I’ve been anticipating this for well over a year, so it’s hard to judge so shortly after. This is definitely a film I must re-watch soon.

It’s kind of funny really, you can almost tell who wrote what in this film. Whenever Han says something, you can tell it’s Kasdan. But whenever some reference or quote from the old appears, it’s uncomfortably similar to Abrams Star Trek reboots, fun and geeky at first, but when you stop to think of it you realize how gimmicky it is.
I feel like the first half of the film does really well at being original, and I personally really liked both Rey and Finn. However, when it comes to the Starkiller Base part, you kind of get this déjà vu feeling. Also I was kind of disappointing by all the CGI, but then again it was to be expected. I had just hoped that it would have been a bit more practical. However, having said that, what was practical was really great, it was just sadly overshadowed quite a bit. I’m curious about how the editing process was done, because Abrams have been bragging about these practical effects for so long, yet so much of it was pushed into the background.

(Oh, and SORT-OF-SPOILER, Snoke’s appearance kind of pissed me off at first, then it made me chuckle. At first it seems like he really was about 20-feet tall, but then it was revealed that he was only a hologram-projection.)

My view of TFA is for the moment closer to my expectations about a year ago, before I got caught up in all the hype;
it was good, not great, it was better than the PT, worse than the OT, it was flawed, but fun, it had a proper Star-Warsy in atmosphere, a few to many geek references, but there was enough new in it to redeem it. It was impossible for this film to live up to our expectations anyway, so it’ll obviously feel kind of disappointing at first, but I think most people here will warm up to it eventually. And on the more cynical side, at least we have a new Star Wars film to argue about.