I’ve been hesitant to post my opinion of the film until it had plenty of time to settle. I’ve seen it twice now and feel like my opinion is pretty well formed. My first viewing was 70mm IMAX at the Indiana State Museum and it was spectacular and incredibly immersive. My second was just a standard 2d digital projection at an Alamo Drafthouse (snagged a couple of those cool Millennium Falcon menus too!).
I had a blast watching the film the first time. It made Star Wars fun again, which was a big deal. But it wasn’t perfect. The thing that stood out the most while watching it was the cgi characters (yellow yoda, Snoke, whatever digital trickery they did to Carrie Fisher’s face) all stood out prominently as looking fake on such a large format with such striking clarity. But some other things felt off too - Death Star 3 in particular left a sour taste to me. But I walked out of the theater happy and with a gut reaction that it was as least as good as ROTJ… Maybe better.
Then as days went by and I thought about it more and read others’ thoughts the problems in the film started to irk me more. Did they REALLY have to ape the plot of the original film SO MUCH? Did they really have to make Starkiller Base yet another Death Star? That and many of the other complaints/issues that have been brought up ad nauseam began to take their toll on my opinion of the movie, but I knew I needed to see it again before I could make up my mind.
When I saw it the second time, I had the same reaction I’ve seen others on here mention. All those problems melted away and I just had a really fun time. The cgi was much more palatable (i even though maz kanata actually looked good and I couldn’t see anything weird about Leia’s face - though I have a feeling the much smaller screen and lower resolution helped that tremendously). The plot structure was fine and even Starkiller Base didn’t bother me despite how lazy it was. The characters are so good, fun, and likable that the films problems fade into the background. Han and Chewie really steal the show for me, but the new characters are all great too. I especially like Kylo Ren. He’s so different from the villains we’ve seen in the previous movies. I really like the idea of him wanting to be dark but struggling with the pull of the light. Can’t wait to see how that pans out in future films.
So overall, my initial gut reaction has held fast. I like it just as much as Return of the Jedi which is a huge step in the right direction for the franchise as a whole. It will take some time and several more viewings before I can really sort out exactly where TFA stands in relation to ROTJ (SW and ESB are on such a high pedestal that I seriously doubt anything else will ever come close), but for now I’m just happy to steal a line from someone else around here: there is finally a fourth Star Wars film!