Okay, I'm back after FINALLY being able to see this. Not being able to go to the in-laws for Christmas had this one single redeeming quality. Anyway, my thoughts.
- I knew Han Solo was going to die as soon as Ben told the GIANT HOLOGRAM DUDE that he knew how to handle his father. Yes, I guessed it that soon. So it was not a surprise when it happened.
- I thought the acting in this one was SO much better than any of the other ones. Even the original.
- Parsecs are still a measure of distance, not time.
- Ships still make no fucking noise in space! Ever since Firefly and Serenity this bugs me.
- I hope Rey is not Luke's daughter but I think they are trying hard to make us think that.
- Gasbandit has Ben's character down pat. Best explanation.
- I hated the last shot. They should have ended as soon as Luke threw back his hood.
- I snickered that the old characters got top billing in the credits. Mark Hamill's name was second and he was in the movie a grand total of like 20 seconds. I understand it, though.
- Unlike R2-D2, I could actually almost understand what BB-8 was saying.
- I love the fact that this was Fin's first mission. Had it not been I don't think he'd have so easily thrown off the yolk of First Order conditioning.
- Yeah, the Chromed Captain turned really fucking fast. I don't quite get that.
On another note, I'm really, really glad that the cast was ethnically diverse. We had a black family with three or four little kids sitting behind us and they were excited to see Fin. Here's a black character that does the right thing because that's what heroes do. Yeah, he lied at first, but he came clean. He was smart, heroic, and not the villain. He did not die first, he did not talk street. He was just a guy doing the best he can. I think that portrayal doesn't get shown enough.
All in all I liked the movie. I thought it went by incredibly fast and it didn't seem like it was 2+ hours. The next two should be epic!