HOLY Pineapple IT'S STAR WARS OMGOMG

Ok so, I saw the movie like 30 mins after it launched and i LOVED IT

I'd give it a solid A, not A+ but A nonetheless

I love all of the characters so far. My only gripe is that i think their development is kind of rushed (i.e. Finn goes from "i never want to see the first order i want to never fight again" to having no problem shooting his fellow ex-comrade stormtroopers, Rey goes from scavenger desert hermit who doesn't even want the company of a droid to then loving the thing and getting along super well with Han/Finn/Chewie and mind controlling stormtroopers.

Kylo has potential to be a sick af bad guy. He looked like a total noob lightsaber dueler (and i didn't get how Rey/Finn had no problem keeping up with him) but showing his face and killing his father and being injured by blaster fire just made him seem such more a visceral villian. Snoke looked kind of strange and I have no idea where he came from

Luke - holy shit he looked like a badass, i'm so excited to see what the next movie brings with him

I didn't get how the starkiller sucked up an entire sun, how tf do you fire it multiple times? Doesn't that kind of kill all the life on your planet?

Super let down with John Williams music though, there was nothing memorable from this one. He could have re-used Duel of Fates and I wouldn't have been mad at all

TFA brings up a lot of questions but i understand this is a trilogy and i'm beyond excited for the next two movies

My biggest complaint is also the thing I loved the most about it...this is a love letter from JJ to original Star Wars fans. It is almost a strange REMAKE of A New Hope. There are so many parallels, callbacks, shout outs, winks and nods to that first movie that I swear at one point I felt like I was just watching A New Hope The Next Generation. But I can't deny that I loved every one of those moments, and it all felt genuine and good.

Otherwise I agree with Cheesball that I don't get how Rey just needs a few moments of introspection and suddenly she's more bad ass with a lightsaber then a powerful sith first trained by a jedi.

Also also...and this is now speculation on my part....I'm pretty sure Rey is the daughter of Han and Leia, the brother of Kylo, and that'll be the "twist" in the next movie. There's so much hinting at it that I'm actually surprised it wasn't outed in THIS movie. Her vague memories of being "abandoned" on a desert planet by her family, her surprising affinity with the force as well as with Luke's lightsaber, her technical prowess...Kylo went off to study with Luke and she was hidden away just in case. The only question I have is if Han and Leia knew (I guess if this is true that at least Han does not).

All in all super fun, solid exciting plot, great action, good acting, and an awesome cast.

This movie did have quite the ridiculous amount of similarities to Episode IV, as Oboe already talked about in greater depth, but it was quite anice enjoyable revamped venture that captured and improved the spirit of that film. I personally think Rey is the daughter of Luke, which would be the only way I'd believe she had the Force ability to beat an admittedly gimped Kylo in a full on duel, and I loved the fact that she had to save Finn, and was an all around more powerful combatant by such a large margin. Han's death was also an excellent way to cement Kylo's moral event horizon was complete and utter, had all of his evil actions previously not been enough, and the aforementioned smack down Rey put on him was cathartic. The last thing I have to note is that Lupita's character killed it in her scenes.

I was bothered by Finn saying he didn't want to kill people, and then proceeding to kill all kinds of Stormtroopers. Like aren't these his fellow indoctrinated homies?

Finn also had a great arc going in this film that was constantly undercut by something mysterious happening with Rey or it being played off as comedic. Dude is literally coming to terms with rejecting systemic indoctrination, deciding to fight it, and confronting the leaders who had terrified him and all of that is played as either comedic or a chance to show how badass Rey is. Was weird.

Also don't get Rey at all. Not invested in the mystery of who gave birth to her or whatnot.

Kylo Ren was so childish. Will be interesting to see how they play that, but was overall totally thrown by his character because they never contextualized his desire to want to be as powerful as Dark Vader and why he was afraid he wasn't.
Supreme Leader Snoke? *snore*

All-in-all, it was a safe film that perfectly played nostalgia notes to make an audience happy. It was an inoffensive film that got the job done. Disney will go on to make $3 billion between toys and box office and we'll see more of this franchise forever. It seems to be what the people want, so I'll let them have it. The film wasn't even like Amazing Spiderman 2, so I'll let it be. Just really hoping the next films are more interesting.

Its funny when we describe these installments of movies or games as nods to the fans. I sometimes wonder if they bank too much on the nostalgia factor. We want them to feel like that first experience we had with the series, but they should also shoot for being different and executing it well.

I agree with Sarge that the execution was done well and with Oboe that this film helped me feel like it was starting a "New Hope" of a beginning. But overall, I'm not a huge Star Wars fan, and what I took from it was that it was a great movie. Not in contention with my all time favorites, but i definitely won't shoot down another watch.

Now, my biggest gripe with the movie is actually Rey. Don't get me wrong, she was a great character. However, I just felt that her awoken force powers were done too rapidly. This bothers me for two reasons.

First, from a philosophical standpoint. I'm more on the inclination of Nurture rather than Nature. Sure, she's got the innate force capabilities, but they're hardly refined and the fact that she begins to use them so quickly (including Jedi Mind Tricks) just irks me to thinking about the dreaded Sue. Now, what is she good at? Techno tinkering and piloting. I can see that as a the result of all that time growing up in a scrap infested desert wasteland.

From a thematic standpoint, Rey's quick grasp of the Force worries me in that if she's already this good without training, granted she went after an undertrained sith flunkie, then its not giving her the room to grow as a character like I feel with Finn. Certainly she's got a lot to learn from Luke, but I feel as if they're not going to go much into her training or rather elevate the type of force powers that we will see in the future, then there's no room for growth.

As a fun for the whole family type movie, it's an A+. But despite setting up a great plot line, it fails to capitalize on itand falls short, mostly for the reasons mentioned above. Could've been one of the greatest movies of this decade, but didn't quite get there in my eyes.

Also, I get the feeling that the girl is actually Luke's daughter... I can't see the Leia and Han from this movie abandoning their child. I can't see Luke having a casual hook up either, but I could see him falling in love at some point, then his wife either dropping off the kid for her own safety, or maybe she cheated on Luke and thought the baby would be evidence of it, or some other plot line. They haven't talked about Luke a lot so there room to develope him again

As a really big Star Wars fan I can totally get what people are saying about it being like a next-gen version of A New Hope. There's so much throwback to the old films that it really just feels like a trip down memory lane while getting to see new faces too. That being said, I saw the film with a group of friends and one of them had never seen a Star Wars movie before, so we gave him a quick rundown. Even though he knew who the old characters were it was clear that he didn't have that moment of "Oh shit" when they appeared. Obviously it's expected that someone who doesn't know the old characters wouldn't have that connection but he said that he felt a lot of the big moments in the film are just like those; ie the Falcon, Han and Chewy, Leia and even Luke. This even applies with the Death Star and the new massive planet that blows up like 5 planets at a time. If you can't appreciate the original Death Star by not having seen it then the new one doesn't mean much, especially because it was delivered in such a quick and direct way. Then there's even the trench run to blow it up. This movie is filled with cliches, and while as a Star Wars fan I'm totally down and excited to see it, I can get why new fans are kind of like "Oh, that's cool, I guess".

I think mostly it comes down to Jar Jar Abram's directing. He's been known to be a big Star Wars fan so I'm not surprised that a lot of the film seems to be fan service. This isn't bad either, especially because the film is just so Pineappling good to look at. I saw it in Imax 3D and was in awe of sand blowing across the screen. It's really incredible. I'm probably going to see it in theaters at least one more time. Just the experience of seeing a Star Wars movie while it's still in theaters was new to me because when episode 3 came out I was like 9 years old.

As for storyline, I think we can all agree that we want to know more. I just want more of Finn and Rey and Kylo Ren and Supreme Baldo. I want to know more about whats happening in the Star Wars universe during this time, and I don't think it was an accident or unintentionally that a lot of people feel this way. I think they're giving us just enough to draw us in and want to stick around. Plus, we're getting a ton of content. Apparently the plan is to get a new direct story sequel every two years with another Star Wars independent movie in between. So that means episode VIII in 2017 and episode IX in 2019. In 2016 there's a movie about a Rebel fighter squadron, 2018 is a spin off about Han Solo, and 2020 is a spin off on Boba Fett. Real cool if it happens.

Anyways, as for the new actors, I really like this cast. I think the characters of Finn, Rey, Poe and Kylo Ren are brilliantly portrayed. I think they're believable, I love all the little nuances, although I do acknowledge some pacing problems. I think they just wanted to cram a ton of stuff in the movie.

I like how Finn is this innocent guy who doesn't want a part in anything and wants to run but in the end decides he's going to fight even if he's not strong enough. As Sarge pointed out the whole afraid one second then killing storm troopers the next is a little fast, but it doesn't ruin the character for me. I think it's mostly that there weren't moments of internal struggle with just him on screen freaking out over it to counter balance those moments from earlier in the film, but I think it's evident that there is some form of character progression and growth with him. I also think he had the funniest moments in the entire film, his delivery and sense of humor he could give off was excellent.

Rey has so many Luke like qualities. Just living a quiet boring life when all of a sudden she's thrown into this new adventure and does miraculous things. It gives off a real "it's your destiny to be a jedi" vibe. The only problem is that whole going from not being able to do anything force related to picking up a lightsaber and kicking a Sith lord's ass thing, but again, a pacing problem more than anything else. I don't think she'll be the most powerful jedi we've ever seen or anything, but she's gonna do some cool stuff.

I really like Poe's character. A smug pilot who knows hes good and isn't scared but isn't an asshole. He just made me smile a lot during the film, he's just a lovable dude. Again I think maybe the pacing and cliche of the movie ruined his return because it was kind of predictable, but it still gave me some chills because of the rebels showing up to attack the empire. Can't wait to see more of him doing cool piloting stuff too.

I actually really like Kylo Ren as a character. I like a villain with internal struggles, I like the back and forth, I like the frustration, I like the tantrums he throws like a little child. I like him as a villain. Super duper stoked to see more of him. I can sense he'll probably turn good near the end and do something to help the light side because of the whole "he has too much of Anakin in him" thing.

The summary of my feelings about this movie just "I want more".

(Also rip expanded universe)

I felt the same way as most have already said - it seemed very much like a revamped A New Hope, but for me the special effects, cast chemistry, and new characters was enough to excite and interest me. The action was very-well paced I felt, it was enjoyable 100% of the time despite my growling stomach (concession lines were absurd, my fault for getting there only a few minutes early).

I can't quite remember the sequence of events, despite only having just seen it today, so I am probably 100% wrong about this paragraph. I feel a motivation for Rey and Finn to suddenly switch over was the swift, merciless destruction of the republic planets. With Finn, brainwashed comrades or not, I'd seek justice. Plus I feel his only real motivation then stemmed from the capture of Rey. Rey accelerated quickly as well, but I like that she had that sudden hesitation when the lightsaber caused that episode. Her motivation may not have been there at all had she not felt the presence of the force and her power to fight back during her interrogation.

I might credit the lightsaber battles fair pacing only due to the fact that Kylo did take a bowcaster round to the gut prior. They had a slight handicap. Still fast, yeah, but. At least it's something to consider

Han. :'(

Annnddd I think Rey is Luke's daughter. She seems younger than Kylo, maybe Luke dropped her off to protect her from that life after what happened with Kylo. Perhaps fear that the same thing will happen or something. All speculation, I'm not huge into Star Wars lore, I just really love the movies and games hahaha

@Tims- A Call of Duty-type schedule scares the hell out of me, but nonetheless I'm super excited to have more movies talk about some of the million other things are happening, or have happened, over the course of the series.

Regarding Rey and her seemingly hyperspeed realization that she has, and can quite adeptly utilize, force powers; there is a common fan theory making its rounds that she was trained by Luke at a very, very young age.. at the same time as Kylo Ren. If this is true, from what we know from shows like Star Wars: Clone Wars and even Rebels (canon) she would have been taught in mind tricks, meditation, and light saber combat.

While we don't know at what age Ben Solo went dark side on his former Master, Luke, there are two possibilities as to how Rey was marooned on Jakku.

1. Luke had a premonition of things to come regarding Kylo coming to existence and realized he could save Rey as he believed her to be vital to the Jedi Order (much like he was to Old Ben). He suppressed her memory and left her on Jakku, knowing that someday, when the time was right, she would be "awakened" and return to him to complete her training.

2. I'm not too sold on this one, but it seems to be fairly popular.. Kylo was the one that marooned Rey on Jakku. When he started his purge of the New Jedi Order, he simply didn't have the heart to kill her and left her in the middle of nowhere. We see, from her force flashback, that this is a traumatic experience for her... So much so that she refuses to leave Jakku in hopes that her "family" would return (Jedi family? Kylo being seen as family because they trained together at such a young age?**).

It isn't until she experiences another traumatic experience of abandonment when Finn decides to leave her and run that she is suddenly drawn to Luke's old lightsaber. Perhaps it is this traumatic experience that brings her back and awakens her force ability that she had suppressed for so long.

** I don't think Rey is related to Kylo, Han or Leia. It would be all too obvious as most viewers immediately thought that was the case. I think they would have addressed it in this movie as it would be rather anti-climactic and boring as a reveal in Episode VIII.