You know, the movie felt pretty great for the first half of the movie - up until Rey gets captured by Kylo Ren. Then we head to starkiller base, and it all goes south. I mean - the McGuffin was the map to Luke, and the back and forth of that information, and Rey/Finn need to find a new purpose in their lives - but then we get this huge Starkiller base out of nowhere. At least in the first movie the McGuffin WAS the plans of the Death Star and the idea was to get them to the rebels so they could destroy it... In TFA the McGuffin and the Base have NOTHING to do with each other. Then the second half of the plot is warped by this giant base and trying to destroy it .. gah. It felt like the characters wanted to go in one direction and they were suddenly pulled off course. It felt inelegant :( It also made the rescue and escape of Rey, Finn and Han feel much shortened - they should have done more with THAT story!

I enjoyed this film both times I saw it, but I do think the plot being so much like A New Hope was disappointing. In particular, the Star Killer base as another Death Star was hard to take - especially when you consider they already did this repeat for Return of the Jedi. The weapon itself really added nothing. To me, it would have been more effective if the second half of the film was simply Han, Chewie, and Finn on a rescue mission to save Rey from Kylo Ren, with Poe and X-Wing support/diversion. Granted, even that's still pretty reminiscent of A New Hope. So maybe the distinction comes from finding ways to make an old plot element interesting via the characters versus the flatness of simply repeating plot elements with nothing new to them besides being bigger scale and more modern visual effects? And speaking of characters, I think what made the plot's familiarity more problematic was that the new characters were so dynamic. They all hooked me a lot and I would have gladly watched them do pretty much anything.

I found a lack of backstory to the movie made it difficult to invest in the larger plot. At the end of Return of the Jedi, our heroes the Rebels were victorious. The Death Star 2.0 was destroyed, along with The Emperor. It seemed the Empire was finished. But the reborn 1st Order seems much more powerful and with even more resources, now able to build a much larger planet killer. The Rebels are now the Resistance, but it appears they have far fewer ships to attack with? I wanted a better feeling of the scale and relationship between these forces, for continuity between Episode 6 and 7.

I've only seen the movie once so far, so I feel like Charlie Bucket in his classroom doing the math problem ("all right, so you've seen it one HUNDRED times..." "no, just one." "ONE!?"), but I was on board from the second it started. I think I didn't mind the plot issues because I didn't drown myself in the franchise beforehand like most other people. I didn't want to risk burnout. The theme of the movie seems to be "where do I belong?" Every character is asking themselves that and finding their answer. In fact, the only character who knows where he belongs is Poe Dameron, which is probably why he's not in that much of the movie! I do feel like we could know more about the First Order and the Resistance, but it's Star Wars, we'll be doused with information anyway. Right now, they're just sides, events and movements bigger than our characters that they don't entirely understand that do what we know they do. The bad guys build planet killers, the good guys blow that shit up. That's not the plot. The plot is "do I belong with the people who build the planet killers, the people who blow it up, or do I run?" Now that the characters know who they are, I'll bet the plots will become more intricate.

Also seen it 2 times (real IMAX 3D) and agree with comments. I think, in fact, for fans, "familiar" but different was the saving grace that avoided disappointment for those who grew up with the mythology.

Consider that Luke Skywalker, the last Jedi - Last Jedi Master - is the McGuffin and that the objective is peace in the galaxy. What bothers me is that clearly Luke is NOT the last Jedi - Rey, and his other pupils are presumably still around somewhere. But it all fits if he's the last Jedi Master.

Luke is the last of the old Jedi, the same way Snoke may be the last of... whatever the heck he is. They're both leading the charge into new things. Luke can't create new Jedi or Sith, instead what was created was the Knights Of Ren. The bad guys can't bring back the Empire, instead they bring The First Order. Even in the Star Wars universe, things can't be the way they used to be. Everything changes and grows, even if it seems just like what came before.

Okay. Got it. - So "the force" is the force and it's the teaching that determines if it's used for good or bad where the Jedi were like the Knights of the Round Table, who used "the force" for good. So Luke is the last good guy with "the force." I just wondered what happened to the kids he was training other than Kylo Ren, who received at least some Jedi training before they dispersed. They didn't all become Knights of Ren, did they? And, by the way, I didn't see any Knights of Ren running around. Did you? Like, where are they? What are they doing? ;-)