Awesome man! I'm glad you got to see it. OK so it looks like we're going there. So yeah if you've not seen the movie and you wish to remain spoiler free (trust me you do), don't go opening spoiler tags from here on out. I have to say that to my eye the trailers made Han look like a bit of a crotchety old man, and I was relieved to see that it wasn't actually the case on screen. I really got a latter day Clint Eastwood vibe from Ford's performance. Not so much the young hot shot anymore as the guy that's seen everything, and has been tempered by years of hard living. I think Han and Leia discussed this very thing at one point (That Kylo had started training under Luke but was lured away)? Maybe I imagined that? Gah! Not the, "I'm not racist, but ... <racist thing>" speech! I thought you were above such cliched dialogue!? Wha? Any hoo ... I really liked both characters. Here's where I'm going to get a far away look in my eyes for a moment. When I was a kid I really got into Star Wars (like a lot of us I'm sure), and in the character of Luke I saw something I could aspire to in terms of strength of character, indomitable spirit, never-say-die attitude and that sort of thing. Luke Skywalker had a crazy dad he didn't understand; I had a Dad that I barely knew. In someways Star Wars informed my world view at a young age. It sounds corny but it's true. So fast forward 30 years (give or take) and I'm a father of twin girls. I can't explain it, but it in some ways I feel like the circle has completed itself. My girls will have a hero with which they can identify over a story in which we share a mutual bond (or at least one of my girls ... the other one could care less about Star Wars). I'm glad that in this set of films they will find a badass, self reliant, take-no-shit, Jedi girl in no need of rescue for which they can look up to. I'm stoked about this particular aspect. Yeah as I was watching Force Awakens I was making comparisons to previous films as well (I'm sure a lot of people have been). Here's where I landed with it. The Original Trilogy was operating on a micro scale. It was very much a character driven tale. The Prequel Trilogy was an event driven story. The characters didn't matter nearly as much as the events unfolding around them (or maybe the characters weren't strong enough to carry the story ... maybe both). It was operating on a macro scale. Force Awakens has dialed back the scope and is once again focusing on characters. In addition to the characters discussed already, I'm loving the character of Kylo Ren. He carries the appropriate level of menace, and restraint, and yet ... he completely loses his shit when things aren't going his way. I thought that was a nice touch in that it showed that in many ways he's still a reckless kid prone to fits of rage. I also loved the new saber. I wasn't sure that I would, but it's jsut menacing as hell. It seems to carry with it a weight and heft that we haven't seen before, and the jagged sputtering edge is just pure evil. Also that frozen blaster bolt at the beginning!? Are you kidding me!? Completely badass. I'm super curious to see where they're going with the whole Knights of Ren business. For me I'd go so far as an 8 maybe even 9. I have a couple of nits to pick, but nothing major enough to get worked up about (R2 waited until the exact moment of Han's death to wake up? Wha? Deus ex Machina much?) I'm equally curious to see where they're taking the Luke story (basically I see him playing the part of a surrogate Yoda to Rei). The ending certainly scored high on my "binge watching scale" (i.e. if I were watching a TV show, and I had the ability to immediately watch the next episode, would I unquestioningly do so?). Oh! So man this easter egg. I haven't seen anything else about it so maybe it's just me. But when Maz Kanata is talking to Rei in the cellar(?) of her establishment, I swear I spotted a decrepit old Dalek in amongst the decommissioned droids down there. Probably wishful thinking, but I'd like to think it was a clever tip of the hat to another long running sci-fi institution. Stranger things have happened!