I personally was very happy with The Force Awakens, and I dont think it is in need of trimming and reshaping in the same way the prequels are.
For me, I watch the Star Wars movies to be transported to an alien galaxy - but a believable one. The authenticity of what is onscreen - the props, the costumes, the sets, the fx - and the beauty of the cinematography forms a major part of my appreciation.
The elements of The Force Awakens that I enjoyed less are those moments where that authenticity wavered. In particular, the CGI of the Rathtars, Snoke and Maz.
The Rathtars are a bit goofy but I can bear with them. That sequence comes right out of a comic book and is the exact sort of scenario that Han and Chewie would find themselves in week after week on the pages of Marvel.
Maz I would have preferred to have been played by a midget with prosthetics and CGI augmentations, but Lupita Nyong did a good enough job of making her a likable, if not a wholly convincing, character.
Snoke, I have to say, is where the movie proverbially ‘shit the bed’. It’s just not good enough fx to pass as authentic, and really shows up as a CG construct. Particularly disappointing as this character could definitely have been played by an actor in prosthetics, and when you think of all the great veteran actors we have in the UK who could have breathed proper life into Snoke it comes across as a missed opportunity. I did read somewhere that the Snoke fx appear rather better on blu ray than on the cinema screen, so i’ll wait and see once the blu is released, but I would be really pleased if Snoke were played by a live actor in the next movie. Short of a massive Adywan style undertaking to refilm an actor as Snoke and paste him into the TFA scenes then this issue is unfixable.
But those rather small issues aside I felt that TFA did have the requisite sense of place and authenticity. Rewatching Looper as well a few weeks ago I was also taken with how elegant the cinematography and pacing is in that film too, which gives me great hope for Rian Johnson’s take on the next instalment.