The bad news which isn't too bad: Ultimately, it's a remake of Star Wars: A New Hope. It opens with a person under attack planting a message in a robot, then sending the robot off. A loner in the desert finds the robot, and the loner turns out to be much more important than initially thought.
And it ends with an attack on a Death Star that has a fatal design flaw ...again...
..and all kinds of familiar plot elements in the middle.
If you ignore these swipes (and more), you'll have a good time at the movies. It's often exciting, the new characters are great. It's easily better than the prequels. And you have Harrison Ford who is worth every penny of the $20 million he reportedly got.
There's a couple nice surprises: The turncoat stormtrooper, Kylo Ren's parentage.
Some quibbles: It took Luke Skywalker three movies to learn to do things with the Force that Rey learns in one afternoon.
For never handling a light saber before, Finn and Rey are really good with it.
But if you just forget the past, you'll have a good time at the movies.
