Wife had a cookie exchange party at our house last night, so....yeah, I went to the movies.
Was it worth the $12.75 to see it on the big screen in 3D? Yeah. Was I blown away? No, not even close.
I liked the old characters having more than cameo roles (except, of course, for *spoiler* at the end). I appreciated that there were moments in the film where it felt like they were making fun of themselves and the film overall - then I didn't like that so much. Other films in the series had comedic moments, looks, lines, etc. But here it felt like there were times when it was cheesy for the sake of cheesy and undermined the tone of the film (I'm thinking of Finn running through the battlefield as a prime example). I also enjoyed seeing all the wreckage from earlier films (decades of battles and destroyed spaceships) used in the sets for this film - it helped solidify where we were in time for this episode. I really liked Rey as she seems like a kick ass character you want to stay with through the last 3 films.
I didn't like Finn (see above, and more of his character's actions). He seems set to be a key character in future films, but for this one he wasn't defined well enough despite how much time he spent on the screen. The last 10 minutes seemed optional - could have stopped with completion of the map, and left that as the cliff hanger to start the next film. The rest of what I watched gave me nothing. The core villian, Kylo Ren, doesn't carry the strength that Darth had in the other series. I get that his internal conflict is part of the story, and I expect it to play out in the last two episodes, but in establishing his character and the last trilogy overall this was not enjoyable. Last thing I didn't like was what came across to me as less homage, and more straight rip-off, from some of the better parts of the original trilogy in terms of sets, characters, etc. You'll understand when you see them, and perhaps say "I remember that from the earlier films" but for me, an homage should be subtle which these weren't in the slightest.
Overall I'd give it a 7-8/10. Could have been better, but still worth it overall.