Oh boy, and I thought it was Corruscant lacking some familiar buildings.
I've just seen it today. Thrilled. But I am a fanboy, it is difficult to review this neutrally. But as a fanboy, I tend to be excited withe each revelations. It is made to be "modern" to satisfy more critics IMO. The prequels are too campy compared to this one. So far:
+ Plot from A New Hope and Jedi Academy II, retouched with modern movie success-safe-guarantee rules (good CGI, follow-on camera during intense moments or cool action sequence like dogfights, polished characters, flashback reduction, and more conformance with science)
+ Enhanced audio
+ Old characters stay in characters
+ Battle scenes (Jakku, Jakku space, Takodana, The Starkiller) are awesome and more alive. Finally storm troopers hit a lot of things. It really shows the struggle of each combatants
+ Humours, especially classy stuffs from Han Solo and Finn's
+ Rey is a strong character, I like her. It is very rare for Star Wars movie to be this deep
+ Finn, I can understand him very well. He is a very likeable character
+ The Skywalker - Solo family tree revelations
+ I like it when Kylo Ren is a badass. But he chose to be "Kai-loh", a name that rhymes with typical pet's name
+ Is that Rakata Prime planet from KOTOR 1? From the looks of it, it is pretty striking, especially the valley where Ebon Hawk landed and the temple where Bastilla is captured
+ More flowing light saber combat that still sticks to the Wookiepedia like signature moves (is that Rey using form 6 by repeatedly thrusting her saber?)
- Kylo Ren is Ben Solo and he is a hormonal wimpy teenager with some emotional issues that I can't symphatise with from the on-screen performance. He might be tricky with Han, but I am really curious on his turn to dark side. He is scratched by non-force user and defeated by untrained force user. Snoke is too incompetent to choose a worthy protege
- Snoke - the name, Star Wars are not known to be good in naming characters. But this is new low after Kylo. Ren, Ben, Ken, what else? Zen, Men, Ten, Pen, Hen, Den? When you are lazy three letters is enough, Rey. I can't complain with Finn though, quite a nice story on how he receive that name.
- Snoke - the character, not scheming, dark, villainy enough. But Hux and Kylo's behavious in front of him makes him to be quite menacing
- No climax. The plot is all flat tense throughout the movie
- No remarkable music score. The Episode I have the coolest "Droid Invasion", Episode III has this dramatic music that plays in the end (also when they show Luke in this movie). Episode IV brought us the original Star Wars intro. Episode V introduce us to the epic "Empire's March". The Episode VI gave us that victory "Yub-Nub song" sung by Ewoks. This one has a lot of scenes that requires strong musical atmosphere.
- Silly use of force powers. Hold, choke, push, pull, mind trick, read minds. Also, is Poe force sensitive? Why he can resist it?
- Captain Phasma featuring Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie) being dumped into garbage compactor, just like her potential
- General Hux doesn't live up to being villainy enough to rival Grand Moff Tarkin, probably because Kylo Ren himself is a wimpy dark side knight whatever that can't give him quite a serious challenge