Episode VII (spoilers)

[pocaracas]

While I agree with that criticism, that's one of the more minor problems of the film. Basically what you're saying is that the transition between the end of Return of the Jedi, and the start of Force Awakens doesn't make comprehensible sense. Whereas if you were to look at any other two adjoining Star Wars films, the audience can follow the narrative that exists off-screen between movies. They flow in an easily comprehensible direction. But in TFA, we don't at all understand how we got there. If anything the New Republic should be at the height of their age now following the downfall of the Empire. That's where the film should have begun - but instead we have a threat to the New Republic that simply overthrows it with no resistance. Why can't the New Republic defend themselves from such a threat? Why did not retaliate directly against the New Order.

Yes, that's what was missing in there...
In something like 20 or 30 years, a whole bunch of stuff happened and we get nothing about it, but the end result, just so we can have a good old "GoodVsEvil" story.
But the title crawl did seem to indicate that things were going ok, with the Jedi getting rehabilitated, and then, Shazam!

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I think the Finn character was totally unbelievable from the moment he appeared on screen. He is suppose to have been snatched from his family as an infant or very young child, and raised in a brutal, merciless camp geared to produce efficient, merciless, regimented killers. He is suppose to be the incarnation of the ancient Spartan warrior. It is not credible that people like that would abandon their entire upbringing, find their conscience the first time they are told to actually do what they have been trained for a life time to do. Experience shock and hesitation during first battle, perhaps. Not find his conscience so quickly. It is also not credible such a person would have any conventional social skills or would fit easily into any society other than the cohorts with whom he was raised and trained. The story of Fin in TFA is childish, no, infantile, character development for a movie perhaps not consciously meant for infants. John Boyega might have some acting talent, but it is not as a trained killer without any context to socialize with anyone outside his unit, finding his conscience or not.

When he first appears, he's a soldier.
Like many soldiers, he's human first and killing machine after.... to me, it made sense.
His backstory, that came later, was the not-so believable part... So... the Empire had been eradicated and the need for storm-troopers had disappeared.... why keep breeding them? Or do those guys get to grow faster than normal? Like clones...?
There's something wrong in the chronology of that world...

The Rey character was slightly less unbelievable at the start, up to the point she took off in an half crewed millennium falcon. She had been a scavenger eking out the barest of living on a god forsaken outback planet since maybe 6 or 8 years old. It would be out of character for her to have experience flying spaceships.

That's those good old Skywalker genes - Anakin was a great pilot, Luke was too... Rey is another.
As if piloting spaceships is a genetic trait - heck, it's sci-fi, why not?

In fact, it would be in character for her to have never even been in a working spaceship since 6-8 years old. If she had the opportunity to practice flying spaceships, she could probably find a better living than trudging through desert and rappelling off wrecked star destroyers scavenging small scrap for a quarter portion of a shrunk wrapped meal each. Yes, she maybe familiar with the layout of the inside of a star wrecked destroyer. It is one thing to know the way. It is another to pilot a high performance, Nonstandard spaceship she has never flown before, having in all likelihood never flown any sort of spaceship before, as fast as the ship would go through a maze chased by a higher performance fighter craft. Also, As a scavenger, she may know which parts goes where in some parts of the spaceship, from ripping them out to sell them as scrap. It is hardly plausible she knows how to actually keep them running, especially in an emergency, and how to conduct emergency repairs. That's not what scavengers do.

I see your point.
Considering how well she knew about the modifications done to the Falcon, I'd say she had more than a scavenger's insight on ships... And, as Luke before her, she had a lot of experience flying a speeder.

From there on, the unbelievability skyrockets, and the least unbelievable part from then on is the trippy dream sequence upon touching the light saber. That's saying something. I like Daisy Ridley's acting too. She is unaffected and takes the role seriously, and she seems to be not without talent. That makes her the best actor/actress to have yet appeared in a core role in any of the Star Wars movies, Harrison ford included. But even her acting could hardly distract from the smug Mary Sue implausibility of her character starting from "garbage it is".

That... yeah.... that's not how the Force has been shown to work. Touch here and flash of memories attached to that object... get told that you can use the Force and, suddenly, "I know kung-fu!" - defeat the best user of the force in a light sabre duel - ka-pow!

Speaking of that duel... how could Finn ever hope to keep up with a guy that can know the future?! Remember the lightning reflexes Anakin had (thanks to the force), in order to go pod-racing? (oh... yeah... we're still trying to forget that... ok... sorry)