WARNING. POSSIBLE SPOILERS
Well, to be honest I'm not sure as I haven't written the review yet but just in case...
My original brief posting sums up the essence if my feelings and expectations fulfilled but I think more could and should be said.
One of the best things about it was the script...witty, articulate, with just enough in-jokes and references back to make it touching and clever but not so many that it became smugly boastful. Loved the first words of Hans Solo to Leia in particular which was a classic example of what I have just mentioned above...and her response was totally in character too.
I thought that there was a marvellous balance between action sequences ( not too rapidly cut so that they became dull blurs) and which lasted long enough to be effective but not so long that the threw out the balance of the film and the mixture of expository dialogue ( just enough) and plot-propelling dialogue to keep us all fully involved.
The film look was marvellous..not something I was wildly conscious of through the viewing but just something I was generally aware of during and after the viewing. And seeing in 3D and in IMAX felt right...the 3D did not over announce itself but had the effect of being fully immersive..one of the very few times I have felt that...most notably in Avatar.
The new characters were all vivid and effective with good relationships established that clearly lend themselves to further development and the performances did them justice. One had the feeling that the characters were being created initially by the dialogue and then brought to life by the actors rather than the other way around. And this was the case to a degree in the previous three ( original) films too I think.
The whole experience was totally involving, frequently very moving ( Hans Solos first appearance...at times like that wished I was seeing it in a theatre full of whooping and cheering fans as I can only imagine the reaction that must have had) and generally, totally satisfying in all respects.
The Dark Side characters were not always whom one expected them to be and were both new and a rightful party of the past...another example of how cleverly the makers melded the past and present and got them so well balanced.
I liked to the way the essential and powerful mythic themes and structures were kept and developed...as many have said, in one way the film was a re-working of the first one but it was so much more than that as it expanded on its power and effectiveness, on what had gone before, built on it, added to it and yet was also highly original. Sounds rather paradoxical but that was how I saw it.
The biggest/ most shocking plot developments were, rightly and cleverly and powerfully ones which dealt with these mythic family elements...parents and children, father and son, family support, friendship and loyalty, internal conflicts...and now I think, before I say too much, I will bring things to an end and just repeat what I said just after seeing:
They did it. It worked. Go see. ( or words to that effect!)