I saw it last night and liked it quite a bit.

The use of real sets and locations brought back the weathered feeling that the original's environments had and the CGI "sets" of the prequels were lacking.

I enjoyed all of the main cast's performances. The new generation of heroes and villains never felt out of place or forced in the familiar surroundings of the Star Wars universe. Lupita Nyong'o as Maz stood out especially. I hope we see more of her in the sequels.

The script felt a little loose. I'm usually of the opinion that a good movie shows and not tells, but some exposition earlier in the film would have helped build up the threat of Starkiller Base when it finally fires its weapon. Why are those planets it destroyed so important? What are the ramifications of their destruction? The viewers should be just as motivated to see justice done as the film's heroes, and allowing the assault by Starkiller Base to hold more weight would have accomplished that.

I haven't seen anyone else mention this, but it was something I noticed: The sound design felt very flat. The original trilogy has some of the most distinct sound effects in the history of film. Hopefully, the sequels are more robust in this department.

On another board, I visited somebody posted a short, non-spoiling summary of the main events between ROTJ and TFA (and really, look at how much A New Hope was throwing people into the deep end with little explanation of what was going on):

EDIT: I see that mrp also touches on a lot of the point. Sorry, didn't see your post before.

- After ROTJ the Empire basically falls apart: the Emperor had strengthened local control of the Grand Moffs so he could get rid of the senate, but it meant that he now had no successor and nothing was keeping the Empire together, admirals and Grand Moffs become local warlords fighting each other as much as the Republic. Mon Motha (leader of the Resistance) becomes the new Chancellor and revokes the emergency powers that allowed the Emperor to take control. The Republic takes back Coruscant and there is a final battle between the remnants of the old Empire (united by either a powerful warlord or some admirals/Grand Moffs finally getting together and forming a cabal. Details are in the book, but I'm reposting this from memory) and the New Republic above Jakku (the starting planet of the movie). The Republic wins and what's left of the Empire are some small time local warlords on the fringes. Mon Motha disbands the Republic fleet and replaces it with local militia for the member planets. (IMPORTANT to know: not all the planets that were part of the Old Republic or the Empire are part of the New Republic, Mon Motha left it to the planet governments themselves to determine whether they want to join the New Republic or not.)
Fast forward a dozen years or so and the First Order are gaining power, building on groups of people dissatisfied with teh New Republic and nostalgic for the old Empire (think Nazi Germany building on the German Empire of WWI). They consolidate power on a few planets where local rebel groups form a Resistance against them. The New Republic is sympathetic to the rebels, but doesn't want to openly interfere, because they don't think they have the right to directly interfere in local governments (interfering with non-member planets might turn other independent planets against them), but they do give the Resistance some support. (The New Republic also seems unaware how powerful the First Order actually has become).

And some quick points:
- Finn and Rey were doing so well in their fight against Kylo Ren, because Ren was seriously injured (he was bleeding heavily after Chewie shot him and probably was caught in the shockwave of the explosion as well.) Also Ren is still dealing with the death of his father, which he still has conflicted feelings about.

- I think Han dying was a good mirror to Obi-Wan's death in ANH and Luke's actions against Vader in ROTJ. Han doesn't fight back because he still believes in his son.

- I really like Kylo Ren as a villain BTW, especially because he's not as menacing as Vader and the other Sith. He's very conflicted throughout the whole movie and the death of Han is basically the end of his fall. He's no Vader or Palpatine or even a Maul, he's a better realized Anakin from halfway through Revenge of the Sith.

- I do think that Rey was too powerful too quickly, but there are some hints as to why (in the flashback, Rey is spoken to by Max von Sydow's character, the same character from the beginning of the movie who had (part of) Luke Skywalker's location.) and it does seem to be a plotpoint for future movies.

- And for something completely different: Hands up who noticed Daniel Craig? (I totally missed that it was him).

2nd EDIT: I also love the Stormtroopers in this movie: they are menacing, dangerous and most importantly show character. Even excluding Finn, you have the Stormtrooper that sees Finn and yells "traitor". One of my favourite moments in the movie. Or the two troopers that turn around when they notice that Ren is throwing a temper tantrum.

Disappointments with the movie:
- The Stormtrooper Captain felt like a waste of a good actress. Hope she returns in the next movie.
- Rey was increasing in power too quickly (though part of it was the direct mental contact with Kylo Ren IMHO. Luke didn't engage with a dark side user till ESB and Vader was far better trained and more controlled than Rey.), but as I said, that seems to be a plotpoint.
- R2's role felt unnecessary.
- The Starkiller base was pretty much unneeded for the story (in my mind the story is about the characters and the search for Luke, the superweapon was unimportant to either journey), but I think they felt the need to include another Death Star level weapon and it was an easy way to take the Republic out of the game.

Oh, something else that nobody has mentioned and which I didn't notice at the time, but have read about online since: Ewan McGregor had a brief voice cameo as Obi-Wan Kenobi shouting "Rey!" when she touched Luke's lightsaber. That is no doubt significant.

Alright, just saw it. I thought it was terrible.
I really did. I went in expecting to be entertained and I wasn't. I thought it looked quite cheap for 2015, nothing really epic happened, the editing was hectic and at times made little sense as it jumped from one place to another back and forth even more manicly than a GOT episode, especialy in the last act. Some of the acting really distracted me, but the bigest distraction was the constant and over-present musical score that really annoyed me. Han Solo was alright, which I didn't expect, but his character seemed to seek the same as its actor : "Get me out of here, please, by any means!".
I don't understand how they could make such a bland movie. It first looked good as I thought the intro was a sneak reverse with us following on-the-run shattered empire troops, and feeling for them before getting the reveal the situation was reversed (which would have been mighty cool IMHO!), but no, it was just the most generic plot you could imagine, with the whinest Darth Vador substitute to date, all the reveals coming too early and without any momentum (Han's son), or too late with no satisfying explaination (The pilot's survival). It really was a mess and the conclusion also made little sense : the heores won, destroyed in a mere 20 mn the biggest menace ever (yeah, they told you it was bigger, duh...), for all they know killed all the bad guys, and yet, they still seem antsy, and the reason why they have to seek out Luke (and send to him a total stranger when Leia was available...), with the least satisfactionary conclusion of any of the previous episodes, the first one that really was not a conclusion to a chapter but the begining of something else, that you'll have to pay for again in two years. At least, ANH, ESB and ROTJ all concluded with a proper ending.

EW Article

Abrams gives the details of the various people in that scene.

Well I liked it too! To each their own though. I'm not going to let other people's dislike for it influence my enjoyment of it. Each person is right for themselves, but for no one else.

-M

Okay, I may not be dancing in the street, but I was eager to talk about the movie for the next few days (nobody at work had seen it yet), and it's been a while since I felt like that. There were things I loved about it. I loved Harrison Ford; he got all the best lines. I loved that the Stormtroopers seemed really dangerous for once; their attack on the village early on was the baddest they've ever been. I loved seeing Max von Sydow. I loved seeing Chewie. I liked the way Han's death was handled. As soon as he tells Chewie 'we'll meet back here' you know one of them isn't making it. And no over-the-top heroic end; he dies because he put his life on the line for someone he loved. It's easily the best Star Wars since Empire, and probably has the best acting and scripting of any of them. Abrams does know what Star Wars fans want, as opposed to Trek fans.