This might be the biggest movie of all time. Let’s compare notes.

What’s It About? Scavenger Rey and ex-Stormtrooper Finn inherit a droid carrying information about the missing Luke Skywalker’s whereabouts, and get mixed up in a plot to determine the fate of a galaxy.

STRAIGHT UP: Great action and characters elevate a familiar plot. 4/5

What I Liked

A new generation – This film’s greatest triumph is in bringing us a trio of diverse, interesting characters – Rey, Finn, and Kylo Ren – who are fit to stand alongside the classic Star Wars heroes. The cast of talented young actors is consistently put in positions to succeed.

Harrison Ford as Han Solo – A part of me is concerned that Han stole too much of the spotlight away from the new characters. On the other hand, Han’s a genuine crowd-pleaser and Harrison Ford has probably never had this much fun being in a Star Wars movie before, so I’ll let it slide.

Comedy team – There’s some genuinely good humor in this film, most of it coming from either Finn’s dialogue or the droid BB-8’s physical comedy. It’s a welcome relief from the prequels’ cringe-worthy attempts at getting laughs.

Duel in the snow – This scene is nearly perfect, and every bit as worthy as anything from the Original Trilogy. It’s informed by the characters’ actions to that point, pays off all the major story arcs, and sets up a viable rematch between the villain and the protagonists. It’s also shot and staged well, to boot.

That scene – A major character is killed off during the film, and I still can’t believe it happened. Even though I agree with it from a storywriting perspective, it’s still affecting me at the time of this writing.

The final shot – There were two points in this movie where I got misty-eyed: the opening title crawl, and here, in the final 30 seconds, where the weight of a hero’s journey combines perfectly with a sweeping shot and that epic theme music.

What I Disliked

Overblown pandering – This movie is way too pleased with its “clever” callbacks to the previous films. At a certain point, the self-referencing quips and jokes become tiresome.

Touch-and-go early – It takes a while for this movie to settle down and really get good. Early on, it kind of dashes from set piece to set piece without really establishing anything; during a pivotal sequence on the planet Takodana, the characters seem to act according to what the plot demands them to do, rather than what they actually want to do. Things do get better from there, though, and the adrenaline rush of the finale is fully earned.

Déjà vu all over again – It’s one thing to borrow a few plot points from A New Hope, and another to almost steal the entire narrative outright. From escaping a desert planet aboard the Millennium Falcon to attacking the weak point of an orbital super-weapon, every major story beat is recreated. It’s not quite as cheeky as what Abrams pulled with Star Trek Into Darkness, but it’s close.

That’s not even physics – The ship-to-ship dogfights in this movie are actually kind of a weak point, as the fighters don’t move with any kind of weight or momentum to make them believable. The Millennium Falcon shouldn’t be able to change directions on a dime like that! It’s like watching kids play with toys.

Gwendoline Christie as Captain Phasma – That was a whole lot of hype for nothing.

CLOSING THOUGHT: Let’s be honest here: The Force Awakens had more important goals than being a good movie in its own right. A bold, provocative new Star Wars film might have galvanized fans across the world, but it also might have backfired – which would have meant the end of the franchise. There was too much money and too many jobs on the line to let that happen. As such, what this movie needed to do was make it safe for everyone to watch Star Wars again, by recapturing the look and feel of the Original Trilogy while avoiding the deeply embarrassing mistakes of the prequels. Now that that’s been accomplished, there is room for young, visionary directors to step in and make even better films set in the Star Wars universe. I feel like this movie is a harbinger of better things to come, but I don’t want to completely look past J.J. Abrams, who has basically proven himself to be the Andy Reid of movie directors – someone who can’t win the big prize, but who can absolutely restore a laughingstock franchise to respectability. Even if his film lacked originality, it still set a great tone for others to follow and mustered some legitimately inspired moments despite its designed limitations. That’s enough for me to call it a definite success.