After the opening scroll and pan my brother leans over and says, "This is already better than Episodes 1 through 3."
I'm still taking it in from last night, and I can find a nitpick or two with tone here in there, but the simple fact is that from start to end this genuinely felt like a Star Wars film. And that's all we ever really wanted.
I did find it interesting that this really mirrored A New Hope in a lot of ways. The droid lost with critical information, the unlikely hero (two in this case) on an out of the way planet, running into Han who gets them where they need to be, one of our heroes seemingly abandoning the others but coming back to save the day, then a bit of ROTJ with the mission to disable the shields so the weapon could be destroyed. And none of that is a complaint, it was all fresh yet felt familiar.
Rey is a badass, such a great character and I'm really looking forward to learning more, whether it's what we're all assuming or not. Daisy Ridley is going to be a star. Thought Finn was great and as mentioned Kylo Ren was a bit whiny at times (my wife watches Girls and Adam Driver bothered her in this role).
Like others experienced, the fan reaction in my theater was great. Lots of cheers for Han and Chewie's first appearance especially, and the Falcon's introduction was fantastic. Rae's technical prowess was a bit surprising but not totally unbelieveable, and I loved the banter between Poe and Finn.
Overall you can find some nitpicks here and there, but geez it just felt
right. Can't wait to see it again.