Heaps of fun to watch. The characters are likeable and although the plot is very thin and the writing isn't as good as it could be, the movie is really entertaining and a satisfying watch.

Surprisingly unfunny for a comedy about a late night talk show host. Emma Thompson is thoroughly unlikeable, and her character is made worse by the fact that she cheats on her husband more than once when he has just been diagnosed with a serious illness. The fact that her husband left his first wife to be with her doesn't make this any more okay, and just serves to make him unlikeable too. Mindy Kaling is underused somehow, even though she's one of the main characters. Her side relationship is completely pointless and lacks any charisma. Is the message of this movie supposed to be that assholes are people too? Give this one a miss, it's not worth the time.

Okay this was really good! I definitely wasn't expecting it to be. No way could Charlize Theron and Seth Rogen work as a couple, right? But they totally did! And the story was funny and warm and felt real, or as real as a romcom gets. Give this one a chance!

Although it has its flaws, TFA is a great place to start a new Star Wars trilogy. It's undoubtedly almost a carbon copy of A New Hope, and negates everything the heroes of the original trilogy did to save the galaxy; but despite all that, I still liked it. The characters are for the most part interesting and likeable, particularly Finn (how will an ex-stormtrooper, indoctrinated into the First Order, deal with fighting against his former brothers and sisters?) and Rey (who is she, and why is she so powerful? Could she be a Skywalker, or is she some sort of new Chosen One?). Poe was also very likeable but lacked the backstory to become particularly interesting in this movie. Kylo Ren, although acted brilliantly by Adam Driver, unfortunately came across as little more than an emo teenager waving a lightsaber around, making him not all that interesting. The OT characters were handled moderately well, with Leia in a position of leadership as she should be, and Luke, although he isn't present in the movie until the last scene, treated with the reverence you would assume of someone who should now be a Jedi Master after defeating the Emperor in ROTJ and after all the years inbetween that and TFA. On the other hand, Han Solo was unfortunately thrown under the bus, having forgotten everything he learned about family and fighting for a cause you believe in during the OT. The setting could have been explained a lot better: why is the New Republic such a limp fish, and why are they disarming in the midst of a threat? How did the First Order become such a threat so quickly? Why has the NR forgotten everything they should have learned very well from the Rebels' fight against the Empire in the OT? But although it was a very flimsy setting overall, it did seem to work. The story had far too many similarities with A New Hope, but moved along at a good pace and did a fantastic job of introducing the new characters. JJ set up a lot of interesting ideas and cliffhangers, such as what will happen to Finn, why has Luke been hiding on an island all this time, who exactly is Rey, and who is Snoke and how did he get to where he is today. Overall this was a good movie and a good place to start the new trilogy. JJ's job was to get old fans interested in Star Wars again, and pull new fans in. He did that very, very well. It's incredibly sad that Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi ruined everything he set up, but TFA can still be watched and enjoyed even if you hated TLJ.