Well, here's my review:

I frankly enjoyed parts of this movie tremendously - particularly all the early parts before the old actors came on screen. We got a glimpse of an original Star Wars there, and that was a blast. But in my opinion, the villains and the ANH similarities were onerous. And John Williams did 'mail in' the score, as brilliant as he is. The Phantom Menace score was great...

Just saw it again, and I think I enjoyed it more the 2nd time. The flaws were more apparent, but it was just fun. It still genuinely made me smile and laugh with excitement in a few spots, not many movies have that effect on me.

Feb issue of American Cinematographer Magazine will cover the cinematography of Force Awakens. Feb. Cinefex Issue 145 VFX of Star Wars : The Force Awakens.

http://www.cinefex.com/next_issue.htm

https://www.theasc.com/ac_magazine/December2015/current.php

Watched the movie. It was awesome! My list: 5, 4, 6, 7, 3, 2, 1

Eventhough I love SW, I am not a star wars "die hard fan", but I grew up watching the original trilogy as a kid, that gave me dreams and interest in science fiction. I was more excited about possibilities than the films themselves. For TFA I wasn't expecting much... I really disliked the prequels for obvious reasons. There was the original take on the story which was interesting but only in small amount, because in my opinion telling the story of young Vader was a huge mistake. You don't take a mysterious myth and try to explain it later if you don't have something extraordinary to tell, which obviously wasn't the case at all.

I watched again all 6 films before going to theatres for TFA. The prequels were atrocious to watch again (now I know I will NEVER see them again) and the original trilogy was fun but deeply flawed. It had so much potential but already ruined back in the days (hello ewoks), so even if i love star wars I can't say objectively they were "perfect" movies... far from it. They just succeedeed to bring dreams and a vast universe to explore and dream of.

Now for TFA I would say I was almost pleasantly suprised. I knew it was a remix of IV so no disapointment story-wise (that was a very coward move from them but I understand the fear they had to go original). It was funny at some points, I loved the spaceships battles (x-wings, ties, etc) even if there wasn't enough. The characters were ok, not very deep that's right but at least the "stupid decisions" you see in most movies nowadays seemed very light so that is a good point. Kylo Ren was a good concept but not necessarily well executed. Once he removes his helmet, aside from the disapointment in seeing a teenager looking like a Harry Potter mate, the character itself becomes weak from that point. He looked like a badass first half then he's a crybaby for the 2nd half... that seemed weird. They should have put more emphasys on the madness of the character to make it feel coherent and interesting.

Snoke rhymes with joke. The design is ugly, the concept is dusty, Phasma was more interesting in the marketing department than in the film itself.

All in all, it was a brainless entertainment, it was fun, it could have been much worse, but clearly lacked any ambition besides making money. Let's see what they do with the other films... but i guess it'll be the same feeling.

well... to summarize my feeling: it was emotionally satisfying but failed at making me dream. It is a comercial rollercoaster success but a creative a failure. Now what were your expectations regarding this movie? I think that question sums up all post reactions for this new film.

How Disney Bought Lucasfilm—and Its Plans for 'Star Wars'

Iger understood Lucas’s concerns. “George said to me once that when he dies, it’s going to say ‘Star Wars creator George Lucas,’ ” he says. Still, Iger wanted to make sure that Lucas, who was used to controlling every aspect of Star Wars, from set design to lunchboxes, understood that Disney, not Lucasfilm, would have final say over any future movies. “We needed to have an understanding that if we acquire the company, despite tons of collegial conversations and collaboration, at the end of the day, we have to be the ones who sign off on whatever the plans are,” says Alan Horn, chairman of Walt Disney Studios.

http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2013-03-07/how-disney-bought-lucasfilm-and-its-plans-for-star-wars#p5

Nice movie in my view. A good match for Spaceballs, not as amusing but still laughable...

@Chaos123x "I actually heard" is an invalid statement. I don't know about anywhere on the globe but in France, It was everywhere from street adverts to the internet. We even saw weird product placement such as La Poste (letter & package/parcel company) having star wars goodies for their products. Even some Banks had advertisement. I'm pretty sure they didn't "PAY" anything to them though since having "STAR WARS" written somewhere is a source of income. It's likely they worked it out for a mutual benefit if not the company actually paid Disney (which make it far worse).

Oh I didn't know this was some kind of official debate.

I do know the hype, marketing, and product tie-ins don't hold a candle to the Phantom Menace. That was insane I doubt we will see anything even close to that again. TFA was rather tame, compared to Episode I's marketing.

Few bits about sound

The team was a mix of JJ’s regular guys from [his production company] Bad Robot, along with people who were veterans from working in the Star Wars film universe. I think it was important to him and Lucasfilm to keep some of the threads continuing from the previous films, and that meant working with people who had a history with them.

http://www.avidblogs.com/sounds-of-star-wars-the-force-awakens/

It is fun how big money can cover even quite bad work.