I could not BELIEVE how much this movie aped the original trilogy when I first watched it. A few cool visuals - Kylo Ren's crackly, half-working lightsaber was a masterstroke - but the larger film acts as a larger (and ultimately accurate) declaration that there's no reason for a new trilogy and not enough new ideas in the bank to make one.

Introduces a bold, young, new cast to the Star Wars universe. Then it sticks them in almost the exact same story as Episode IV.

I've still got a lot of love for The Force Awakens, even if it has somewhat been diminished in the light of the full sequel trilogy. Back in 2015, Force Awakens was full of exciting promise, and the movie itself is visually spectacular, particularly with the return of the Millennium Falcon which hadn't been seen on-screen in over 30 years. Harrison Ford's return and interactions with the new cast were perfect, as were the performances from Ridley, Boyega, and Isaac. It's just a shame that the sequels as a whole were executed so poorly, especially when The Force Awakens provided such a strong foundation.

Return of Jedi had a perfect ending to Star Wars. This one literally copies the original film but it's MUCH WORSE. I shall never accept it as canon, but only as a nightmare that Han and Leia (maybe Luke too) had as a result of war experience and fight with the Empire.

I've always really loved The Force Awakens and found it to be one of the most exciting Star Wars films. The integration of new characters coupled with the callbacks to old characters and lore from the existing franchise works very well.

Afraid to do something different to the point that it hinders the overall experience just a bit. Save for the Han Solo death at the end, it plays it safe all the way through, rehashing the "best of" from A New Hope. Think The Last Jedi built off this movie in interesting ways but the overall trilogy brings each of these down for me just a bit.

The Force Awakens was a great callback to the structure of the originals! It felt familiar, but it still had the newness of having new characters. It can be enjoyed by fans who haven't seen the earlier films, while at the same time, has enough common characters to still be canon within the franchise as a whole.

I think many people forget how good The Force Awakens is. This movie, while playing with some familiar icongraphy, is led by its original cast first and foremost, with no member of the OT team ever overshadowing Rey, Finn, Poe, and Ben. For a good deal of the runtime we are focused on them and utterly engaged in their journeys and the world. I will forever defend this movie as the best start the Sequel Trilogy could have gotten.