Episode VII (spoilers)

[Anomalocaris]

I also had some questions about the Finn character and his transition from faceless minion to emotional vulnerability.  I love the idea of cracking open a storm trooper uniform and looking at the humanity inside.  But I agree the transition seems a bit glib.

But the character I'm still having the most trouble with is the new #2 bad guy.  His light saber dustups with control rooms strikes me as odd.  Aren't dark side guys supposed to have all the Jedi training plus a dispassionate something more?  He just seems way too emotional and unfocussed to me.  But I'm withholding judgement until future episodes backfill his story.

But did these two cracks ruin the experience for me?  No way.

I experienced progressive disinterest as the movie went on.  Were it not for the rip off props and a few old fogies there for nostalgia sake, this movie would have been largely indistinguishable from any one of a large number of thinly plotted, cheap taste pandering, special effect smothered cynical Hollywood money grabs.   Only the hope that the plot would make something substantial of the Rey character the film had half heartedly try to set up during its first 15 minutes, and the belief that Daisy Ridley might pull it off when it does, kept me from dozing off or leaving early. Daisy Ridley certainly seems exponentially more talented than mark hamill.

Besides cheap exploitation of nostalgia, This movie had nothing going for it but Rey, and I think it seriously blew Rey's character development and wasted Daisy Ridley's perhaps slightly naive earnestness.