Just saw it.
Very pleased overall. Good acting, good writing, lots of character, shortage of wince-inducing moments.
[spoiler]Three-pee-oh can seriously die in a smelter.
Otherwise, quite good. The trailers did a very nice job of not revealing too much about our new resident Sith apprentice. He's quite interesting, not at all cardboard cutout E-ville.
Stormtroopers are given a strange sort of implicit innocence. Finn's a particularly clear case, but it applies to others, as well. Poor indoctrinated souls. This does have the side effect of making Finn sort of surprisingly a bit of a wuss, though; there's an element of "Star Wars 7: The Search for Finn's Spine" in the plot this first time out. It's mildly annoying that his spine (or other bits) mostly perks up when it comes to rescuing damsels in distress. This is fully redeemed by how minimally said damsel requires rescue.
Parallels to "A New Hope" are mostly riffs. There are bits that are played straight (ultra-mega-super Death Star, trench run-type fighter scenario), but a lot of it really isn't. "Rescuing Princess Leia," for example, comes in two flavors, both brief; one involves the "princess" rescuing herself, and the other involves "her" (him) being rescued by an actual stormtrooper.
You can see Han's big moment with his son coming a bajillion miles away (and maybe so can Han), but it doesn't lessen the impact much.
The crosspiece on that red lightsaber is not just for show. Somebody was thinking about all those hilt-to-hilt saber locks he was going to get into.
Could have used more development on a certain silver-armored trooper and on the First Order generally. Also, how the hell do you manage to keep a planet-sized super weapon a secret? That's "planet sized," not merely "planetoid" like those dinky little Death Stars the Empire could never keep under wraps. That thing has some serious plot armor. It beats the hell out of the Sun Crusher, though. More fun, less Mary Sue super weapon. If, you know, Mary Sue can be a super weapon. ... Maybe call this new kid the Sun Slurper?
They actually Alderan-ed Coruscant. Seriously, they did it. Nobody seems to dwell much on it though. There's no line about a million voices crying out in terror, etc.. They don't even mention the planet by name. Also, apparently Coruscant and the Resistance base are really, really close neighbors, 'cause you get to see the apocalyptic skyscape with no waiting. The part of me that wanted to be an astrophysicist when I was a kid was crying a little.
An X-wing pilot has always wanted to try a TIE fighter and has nothing but good things to say about it. Endearing.
"The Resistance?" Seriously?[/spoiler]