While talking to Rose about how much he loved the films he created and four of which he directed — even calling them his "kids" — Lucas said "sold them to the white slavers that take these things, and ... "

They wanted to do a retro movie. I don't like that. Every movie, I worked very hard to make them different," Lucas told Rose. "I made them completely different — different planets, different spaceships to make it new."

Before the deal came about, Lucas said he planned on writing and directing the sequels to his original trilogy. Then the sale occurred. Disney was not interested in his ideas for the follow-ups, so he stayed away from the production of Force Awakens, he said.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/george-lucas-quips-he-sold-851545

Btw first few pages of reviews on IMDB really deliver and this is worse few pages of any more or less good rated film I saw.

Same here. On the second pass I was able to really appreciate the set designs and flow of the action more. The Falcon and X-wing sequences had a strange mystical feeling to them that were really enjoyable to watch in the unique vantages they were presented. Harrison Ford's performance was really impressive, even better the second time around I think. It has me wondering if Mark Hamill will also "bring it" in episode 8.

The only thing that felt a little off was the Kylo-Rey match-up toward the end. Unless she was somehow channeling Luke, there's no way she'd be able to match Ren's skill, even with his injuries. If she came out of it more beat up I would've been more convinced and it would've seemed much less tacky. That being said, I think she's got the grit to be a great hero character, hopefully on a similar level to Sigourney Weaver's portrayal of Ripley in Alien(s).

And John Williams did 'mail in' the score, as brilliant as he is. The Phantom Menace score was great...

All new trilogy sound tracks are very good.

Is there any confirmation of the digital intermediate format of this film? 2k, I would assume.

I absolutely enjoyed TFA.

Reading Vitaliy's original critique - I also enjoyed his commentary here as well.

The film was not perfect, but it's a piece of Pop Art, and frankly I enjoyed this "cheeseburger" a lot.

To some of the other people "hating" on Star Wars - much of that commentary is just stupid.

And to the guy complaining about religion being "banned" from public schools - that's fucking hilarious.

They don't TEACH Christian (or other) religion in public schools, that's something you do at home or in your house of worship. Certainly no one will STOP a child from praying at lunch or recess, whether that's to Jesus or Allah or whatever - that would be religious persecution - which we don't tolerate in US Public schools (for now).

If you want your kids to have "more God" you should homeschool them - so they'll get a proper distorted view of reality (my own joke here).

This is the star warts you're looking for...directed by gritty realist english director Ken Loach...

There wasn't much complex story in the original (ANH) when that came out either.

You mean that zero and thousand are quite close numbers? If can't stand for something without original story, just impossible.

And to those now judging Star Wars simply because it is now "Mouse Factory" property with massive marketing, I call full, absolute Bovine Excrement. I'm sorry, but Star Wars has ALWAYS been heavily bolstered by advertising and licensing in every imaginable form, always. Even under Lucasfilm. Seriously, that's probably more than half the reason we all know it and like it in the first place.

It is just not true. While they always got money on toys and such, marketing hype and such never had been same, and you never had 98% official reviewers posting you just complete lie (to keep theie job and access).

It is also good idea to read SW story in 90s and role of quite good books and games (that did not bring fortunes).

Finn retains a subtle quality of "stormtrooperness" that comes across strange until I picked up on it. His performance choices made more sense.

How idiot and bad actor have any subtle quality? May be with other script and director he had some chance, may be. But it will be biggest surprise in movie history if something will change.

The "new bigger Death Star" did initially seem like a poor choice, but the strength of the new Republic needed to be eliminated early in the trilogy in order to put the light side in significant peril.

Why you need DS for this? It is not the Republic even (and whole set up has ZERO sense at all).

I can understand the hate for the score. It was a bit dull/undefined in many places, but mixed in with the well-utilized original Star Wars score, there were noteworthy new themes. Rey's theme brings a new vocabulary to the Star Wars score toolbox, and it worked well in concert with original music in a few places.

You can just get score and listen to it, Ray theme is quite weak thing for Williams. But if you looks for various music written by Williams you will see that he can make quite weak music, focusing into very subtle things no one notices, if allowed by director.

Its a JJ Abrams movie

One knows all they need to from that

"After this even prequels look good"

Prequels looked good long before this. They just slightly lacked some good story and some acting.
Music was strong, story was weak, but original.

are you positive/have some proof of this?

I am. It is whole market for such things and it is part of marketing budgets (of course it is not openly stated in it such ).

I'm with VK. Not worth the bandwidth of the cam version I just watched. No creativity. I mean this story was new and well executed in Ep. IV, but rehashed as a follow-up to the Revenge of the Sith it is abysmal. The fact that it does well at the box office says more of the consumer than the product.

@Chaos123x : the myth was made back in 1978. This is just a cash-in for the toys. Are you aware the marketing budget exceeds the cost of production above/below the line? look up the figures.