BTW, did anyone find any hidden Mickeys? 
The weapon in question had a kind of energy field swirling around it in a tight spiral. I take it this was a technology designed for use against light sabers.
Lost my post.
There was a mention of the Senate, so that has been re-established. Not sure why Leia isn’t involved. I can understand why the new Republic may not be strong enough to fight everywhere.
I wish Luke had a line - maybe “I have not seen that light saber in a long time … a long time”
Here is the info on the old guy on Jakku:
Was Luke at the location of the Jedi temple?
Why did Teedo (I had to look that up) give BB-8 to Rey?
Looks like Kenny Baker did get a “R2D2 consultant” credit
IMDB says that Freema Agyeman (Martha on Dr Who) played “New Republican (uncredited)”
Brian
Finally saw it tonight.
It was indeed derivative, as has been said, but I enjoyed it quite a bit for all that. I liked Finn a lot as a character, and enjoyed his interactions with Rey. I knew from the minute they introduced him that Han would wind up getting killed off…hell, I was thinking initially that they would kill Chewie as well.
I would definitely rate this movie higher than the prequels and about on the same quality level as ROTJ but with better acting.
I wondered about the lack of subtitles during that sequence. But I figure she knows Teedo and recognised that a working droid is a prize not to be sold for scrap. She would also have understood what BB-8 was saying, which may have been a call for help.
Okay, so I was right. I swore I was imagining it when I saw her because she has approximately half a second of screentime. I figured it was probably just an extra that looked like her.
I recognized Freema in that scene, also. Wasn’t sure it was actually her until now.
I generally liked it, but it seemed kind of cramped. Everything seemed to take place in one tiny little piece of the galaxy. They barely got into hyperspace escaping with the Falcon and seconds later Han brings her out over Maz’s world. (I really did like Maz…it’s amazing how much personality Lupita manages to give her just with her voice.)
Then when they all head to the Resistance’s world (which is within VISUAL RANGE of the Republic, apparently), they spend next to no time in hyperspace. In the old trilogy, they were sometimes in hyperspace for DAYS. The galaxy is big. Really big. There was no sense of that in this movie.
I had an interesting thought… 30 years ago, all the characters in the movie would have been men, possibly excepting a princess to rescue.
15 years ago, we might have had Rey as a character… a spunky, resourceful female character who can hold her own and contributes some stuff initially. Then she meets a male character with an interesting backstory (Finn). And then she spends the rest of the movie helping him fulfill his destiny.
Examples include Trinity from The Matrix, and (going a bit further back) Maid Marion from Robin Hood Prince of Thieves.
And in fact, a lot of marketing faked us into believing that would happen here. On the various posters, Finn is the one holding a light sabre. And in every preview I saw, there was a glimpse of Finn with a light sabre, but not Rey.
Well played, post-post-post-feminist filmmakers.
Also, that was Andy “Gollum” Serkis playing Supreme Leader Snoke.
I think second instincts were correct in that it wasn’t Freema Agyeman. IMDb is often filled with guesses until they get winnowed out. More likely it was Maisie Richardson-Sellers, whose role was reduced in the editing.
Am I alone in thinking that the interrogation scene where Rey is bound in that chair has a heavy air of threatened rape, at least at the start? Of course that’s not actually going to happen in a film rated 12A but …
I didn’t get that at all. In fact, watching the scene, I figured she’d be getting the same treatment as Poe, which meant she’d eventually be ok.
Info on R2D2:
Brian
Did anyone else notice the large amount of anger that Rey used while she was fighting Kylo Ren? You could seriously see the dark side influencing her. My fan theory is that Kylo Ren and Rey will finally, together, bring balance to the force by being able to use both sides.
I didn’t think that they were going to go there but, after the kerfluffle where Disney said “No more Leia slave outfit merchandise”, I did think “So I’m guessing this won’t be a play set…”
Somewhat off-topic, but I heard that the Star Trek trailer may be attached. It wasn’t (which is fine because the trailer isn’t that good)
I had:
Zootopia
The Fifth Wave
TMNT
The Huntsman Winter’s War
Gods of Egypt
(possibly another)
Brian
All of my previews were Disney related. The only one I really remember was Avengers: Civil War.
No trailers when I saw it.
Pretty much “meh” for me. My wife found it very enjoyable.
For us there were at least 2-3 Marvel trailers - which pretty much set the tone. Impressed me as simply another offering in yet another action franchise. Which isn’t exactly my cup of tea.
I thought it seemed largely a remake of the original film - enough so that I could almost view it as a remake. (I’ve been enjoying ST and SW since ST-TOS was on TV, and turned my kids on to them, but I’m no no way up on the books, etc."
What impressed me the most was all the people RUNNING. Amazing, with all the technology these folk have, that they can blow up planets and monitor people light years away, but the best way to escape is to run. Once I noticed that, it impressed me that there was a lot of running - IMO to suggest urgency. I swear when the MF landed on that base, there were 2-3 women in red running behind them to the right of frame, suggesting what a bustling place it was. When they shot from a new angle to the left, you could see those women in the middle of nowhere, with no clue what they had been running to. That shot summed it up for me. A whole lot of frenetic energy heading nowhere.
I found myself getting bored in one of the interminable forest scenes - near the bar. Yes, more running. Realized it was pointless to try to figure out why there had been hordes of stormtroopers, but she held them off with one pistol, then all of a sudden Darth Jr. catches up to her by slowly stalking. And why did he wear that mask anyway? Just a Darth wannabe? And how many times did he have to practice dropping the mask to have it land perfectly on the catwalk without dropping?
Sorry, don’t mean to just catalog minutiae. Yeah, it was a fun enough way to spend a couple of hours. But that is it for me. Finn was enjoyable enough. The new pilot was pretty one-dimensional. And I thought the final scene w/ Luke quite a let-down. Unsure how anyone found that emotional or significant. I mean, we knew he was going to be up there, and he didn’t even say anything. And I assumed Han was going to die as soon as he headed out onto the catwalk. My wife thought he was adorable. I thought he just looked old, tho his relationship w/ Chewie was fun. “YOU’RE cold!” was my favorite line. 
I wondered who the target audience was? Was it old farts like me who saw the original when it came out? Or was there enough there to appeal to the next generation? Because - I repeat - for me it was mainly like watching a repeat of the 1st film.
I loved it.
What were the five planets that were destroyed?
Rey being a good pilot is not that different from Luke in ANH, which I saw on TV just last week. She at least has more experience in mechanical stuff and handling weapons since she is a scavenger and not a farmer like Luke. She also is shown using a weapon.
I think she is Luke’s daughter and/or trained by him.
Poe may have a bigger role in the next films.
Avengers: Civil War was another trailer.
I checked and we had 20 minutes of trailers, which doesn’t bother me if I want to see the movies.
Avengers is probably the only one I would see in the theatre. If the reviews are good I may rent 5th wave or Huntsman
Brian