Managed to grab another viewing last night - never going to turn down a freebie ticket especially for Star Wars
I was partly on edge during the first showing, desperately hoping they wouldn't screw it up and boy did they not screw it up! They've carried on the story perfectly, it had everything a proper SW film needed. The characters were well developed, the bad guys truly were nasty and it's great to finally have a badass dark Jedi - IMO in a shorter space of time he's nastier than Vader. General Hux is also an awesome baddie, perfectly psychotic and very 'Adolph Hitler'.
Only a few slight criticisms, not going in to details as I don't want to spoil anything but those who have seen it will understand, certain characters develop certain skills a little too quickly and easily in my view. It didn't take anything away from the story though. Plus one of the characters, given their background and history appeared to have unexpected difficultly in combat with a less experienced individual. But again that didn't spoil the scene or overall story.
I'm heavily biased obviously but The Force Awakens has to be one of the greatest films I've seen. It's not for everyone but they've done a great job, can't wait for the next one. Loved Daniel Craig's cameo (he's the one who's a victim of a Jedi mind truck), the humour was just right, and although they obviously needed to have some things aimed at kids for merchandising, thankfully no Jar-Jar Binks-level Annoying characters.
The future's bright, the future's JJ Abrahams