SPOILERS AHEAD
- Daisy Ridley as Rey is pleasing to the eye and ear. I like the choice made to keep her native accent, whether or not this means she's a Kenobi. Her performance throughout is strong and fun to watch, only diminished by the ridiculousness of what the writing enables her character to do at times.
- The performances throughout the film are generally very good, with only a handful of badly delivered lines (primarily by Finn), which is also the fault of the directing. I like Poe early on, but due to poor character writing in the 2nd half, he became less interesting to me. I like BB-8, but don't like how R2-D2 was written out to make room for him.
- Han Solo. Harrison is great in everything he does, including the reprisal of one of his most iconic roles. Though there were a couple of awkward moments in his performance, they were the result of sub-par writing. He does deliver my favorite moment in the movie; "That's NOT how the FORCE works!!", he tells Finn.
- Chewie was used well in the film, with a few stand out moments (my favorite being his shrug response after being asked if that is Han Solo "the war hero"). I feel that his 'injury' was the result of a temporary solution to keep him out of the story for a while when the writers had nothing for him to do. I also wonder if there were changes made to his character during production, after having seen the early leaked concept art of Chewbacca's mechanical arm.
- Seeing a lightsabre battle in the snow, as it snowed, was aesthetically pleasing, regardless of the MAJOR problems I have with that scene in general.
- Seeing Stormtrooper blood in the opening scene was a welcomed addition to this film, as we generally (and intentionally) didn't see blood in the previous Star Wars films. Because of that, it was a powerful image which signaled from the start a different tone for this movie.
- The idea of making a Stormtrooper who defects a lead protagonist in the story is interesting, though I'm not fully satisfied with the direction that the character was taken in. Hoping for better development of this idea in the next one.
- I was surprised to appreciate the extent at which JJ utilized practical locations, creatures, and effects. This was their 'selling line' from the moment production was announced, which left me cynical, but which was ultimately delivered upon, mostly. That being said, they still missed the mark on what was more important: story. Also, good call on using left-over McQuarrie concept art for the film. I like how all the wreckage on Jakku looks: Star Destroyer, Tie-Fighter, X-Wing, and especially the AT-AT.
- Kylo Ren, as a Star Wars villain, is both interesting and still alive after one film (or so). That's more than can be said about other Star Wars villains besides Vader.
- Love the opening crawl: simple. Luke Skywalker is missing and Leia is looking for him. That's it. No senate or trade federation drama in sight.
- John Williams' music is good, stronger from scene to scene than a lot of the music used in the prequels. Only difference is that there is no new stand-out track theme like "Throne Room", "Imperial March", "Duel of the Fates", "Across the Stars", or "Battle of the Heroes" - nothing that is just fun to listen to on it's own. But as a soundtrack to the film: solid.
- Probably the best moment's for me were when Rey and Finn were star-struck at meeting THE Han Solo and hearing about Luke Skywalker, etc. I feel like I'm IN their shoes at that moment, and the gravity of the situation almost brings me to tears.
