My review:
It was not a classic, but I found it to be stylistically pretty good. I LOVED the character with the mask with shoulder-length hair…like an evil John Travolta. What made the movie for me was Han Solo. What a great thing to see him finally acknowledge that “It’s true…all of it.” And then he gets stabbed by his son because he sticks his nose out…something Han would never have done in the OT (maybe ROTJ). In other words, it wasn’t an unnecessary movie. It progressed things.
What I didn’t like and I’m sure others have mentioned is the borrowing from other films, such as the cantina sequence, and etc. It felt a little too much like an homage to Star Wars rather than a Star Wars. As bad as the PT was, nobody could fault them for not being original (some would say originally bad). Hopefully Ep. 8 is less this way and with Luke as the bearded Jedi master, I am very excited to see what Ep. 8 brings.
-TM