I agree with all of the conversation. The movie was filled to the brim with So how about we just remake star wars? And coincidental asspull for the win! I think all of that was calculated to pull at heart strings and be just fun. The acting was great, the characters were compelling. If the next one is essentially a remake of Empire I will definitely be disappointed,but I think everything about this movie was a right call. My wife pointed out that coincidental asspulls can be blamed on the force Which,okay, cool.

Just got back from TFA and Dana is me.

Despite my managing to completely avoid spoilers I found lots of parts of the movie to be incredibly predictable. Even at the end, when despite all the promo shots of Luke's lightsaber only being in Finn's hand, I knew it was going to fly into Rey's hand as soon as Kylo Ren tried Force-pulling it to himself.

That being said I enjoyed it much better than the prequels. And I appreciate that it had a real sense of humor at points rather than assaulting is with Jar Jar-esque sight gags. I loved the Storm Troopers quietly turning around and walking away during Kylo Ren's temper tantrum.

Who wouldn't want to do all that?

I'm not that keen on jeweled dresses personally, but I'd be game for anything else on the list.

My one real quibble/question is this: why did

My thoughts immediately jumped to R2-D2 sensing potential Jedi master energy finally manifesting in Rae. And it was time for the new generation to seek out Skywalker, which was what Luke's plan using R2 was all along.

That's how it connected to me, in the moment, when it happened.

I don't understand, however, why the First Order had the whole map (except that one piece) already.

My thoughts immediately jumped to

That was my first thought too. But I've been wondering a lot about it since.

I thoroughly enjoyed TFA...thoroughly. Perhaps precisely because it was so reminiscent, but I also loved the new characters. All of them. Not a Jar Jar in sight, thank goodness.

I wish the youngsters with me liked it more but apparently the predictability bothered them.

In regards to R2's coma, it made me think that he was doing 'deep space searching' for Luke. Not sure what made me think that.

The plethora of cameos by some of my favorite actors gave me a great idea. JJ should pick a charity he loves and then tell his casting directors that anyone who commits dollars or acts of service and who 'just wants to be in Star Wars' can have any background part they want...to the highest bidder baybee!

They might solve world hunger!

BB8 reminded me so much of my beloved Cagney (What? He's short, sweet, white & orange) that I immediately fell in love with him even deeper than I ever loved R2, and that is a LOT.

Yes, I'm easily manipulated emotionally.

TFA was highly enjoyable. I got a little misty when the Falcon took off for the first time....

I'm going to whitefont this because I don't want to spoil it for anyone else, but I was trying to figure out why Rey looked so familiar, and I finally realized it's because she looks just like Harry Styles. Can't unsee it!!

I admit that I had to laugh after it was all over, because of all the theories/rumors about why Luke wasn't in any of the previews, when the answer is that he only had like 60 seconds of screen time.

And I was assuming going in to the movie that Han was going to die, and as soon as we found out that Emo Kylo Ren was his kid, I figured that would be how it would go down, but it was still a gutpunch.

I thought R2 had been silently hacking the First Order, trying to stitch all the maps together, and woke up when he had them done. (The fact that "a map to Luke Skywalker" doesn't actually make sense...well, it wouldn't be JJ without a healthy dollop of handwavium.)

I had such a great time! Super-fun, lots of callbacks, (okay, it was basically ALL callbacks) and some awesome spaceship chases.

Best part was when Rey gets the light saber, the entire audience cheered, and just as it was dying down, Aeryn shouts out "AWWW YEAH!"

Yeah, I was pretty sure Han was going to die as soon as Ren was revealed to be his son, and certain of it the minute he stepped out onto that catwalk.

I was glad that the "Luke isn't in the previews because he turned to the Dark Side" rumors were unfounded. Though I agree the map to his location seemed really goofy.

The giant red ball for me, though was the Star Killer weapon. Giant energy beam that can apparently travel through hyperspace (since it would have taken years upon years to get anywhere otherwise) and is bright enough to be visible through the atmosphere during the day on other worlds yet not permanently blind all the First Order troops staring at it when it fires. Plus, I'm not sure how blowing up a handful of planets destroys "The Republic".