I hope your loins are properly girded, SK.net.
I'll start with the one thing I wish they had done better: I wish they had better explained the First Order-Resistance-New Republic political situation in the opening crawl. While there's enough information throughout the movie to form a general idea of what's going on, I felt like it would've been nice to know, within the movie, about things like the fact that the Resistance from the original trilogy didn't reconquer all the Empire-held systems or that the old Resistance became the New Republic or that there was in-fighting within the systems that the former Empire still controlled or that the Republic and former Empire-held systems were in a cold war-type situation where the Republic refuses to get into a direct confrontation with the Imperial systems but secretly supplies/supports the Resistance. Okay, maybe not
all that. I don't need to know about trade negotiations. But I do feel like they could've described the situation better in that opening crawl like they did in the original trilogy.
Now onto the things I enjoyed.
I enjoyed the fact that the movie goes out of its way to show the characters learning/evolving. Rey doesn't just immediately figure out how to fly a starship. She mentions she's flown some before, and then we're shown her beating the shit out of the Falcon as she tries to figure out how to fly the thing. There's a nice, realistic process there. She doesn't just jump into the pilot seat and away she goes like most other movies would have her do.
It seems like they did that with every aspect of the young/new characters (specifically Rey, Finn, and Ren), as far as their technical abilities go. For example, Rey's expertise at fixing/repairing/operating ships is explained by the fact she has spent her entire life crawling inside of Imperial and Resistance ships and walkers, learning the ins and outs of all of them: where everything goes and why, what something does, what has the most value from a technological standpoint, etc. And what's great is they even add a bit more realism to that by including her mistake on Han's ship. What happens when she tries to mess with Han's ship, one she would've never encountered on Jakku? She has the technical knowledge to figure out what needs to be done to the ship to get the results she wants, but she's not familiar with that type of ship so she accidentally releases those creatures.
Not only does that add realism to the characters, but I really felt like I was watching the new, young generation as they started "growing up." There was a nice contrast in the film between the old generation who were confident and assured and set in their ways (Han, Chewie, Leia, and the Resistance) versus the bumbling kids who were banging into walls as they were trying to figure things out for the first time (Rey, Finn, and Ren). I liked that. It gave me the warm and fuzzies and has me looking forward to seeing them grow into their own over the course of the next two films.
I also liked the story. I thought they took it in a direction that seemed like it flowed naturally from the end of the original trilogy. It didn't enrich the world of Star Wars much, but I don't think it hurt the original trilogy's world at all like the prequels did. (The badass Galactic Empire only lasted ~20 years before it fell?! Fuck you, Lucas!*)
Anyway, I'm running out of time so I'll wrap this up by saying I think the perfect word to describe The Force Awakens is solid. As I was watching the film it actually reminded me of the first Pirates of the Caribbean film. Both films absolutely nailed the entertainment factor and were borderline good/great. They won't ever be considered the greatest films of all time, but they didn't make any mistakes either. They're both just solid, good films that are super entertaining. And I enjoyed them both immensely.
Would I like to see the next two films swing for the fences? Sure. But if they end up going the same route as The Force Awakens I won't be upset either.
*I have actually had a change of heart when it comes to Lucas. But that's a story for another time.