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Edwin Davies: I think it's a little early to say whether or not The Force Awakens will be remembered positively; The Phantom Menace got positive reviews and strong word-of-mouth when it came out and it took a while before the consensus that it was terrible dominated the discussion. There's always a backlash to a film that has this much hype driving it and which is seen by so many people.

However, I can say what I liked about it more than the prequels, and that can boiled down to three things: character, story and style. The old characters coming back was nice and warm and fuzzy and everything, and they were deployed well, but what really impressed me was how great the new characters were. It helped that they picked some phenomenal actors to play them, but Rey, Poe Dameron and Finn already feel more defined and interesting than Qui-Gon Jinn or Mace Windu did.

The story had a greater drive to it, and even if it felt like it was retreading familiar ground (it's being called the series' greatest hits collection for a region), it hit the familiar beats with real energy and enthusiasm. It wasn't an original story, but it wasn't boring. It delivered on swashbuckling space adventure and no one mentioned the taxation of trade routes once.

Finally, the film just looked fantastic. It used physical effects wherever possible, which marked a sharp break from the prequels and seemed to help the actors - it's a lot easier to get a decent performance from someone acting against a puppet on an actual set than against a ball on a stick - and it tried to make the world of the film look believable, rather than like a cut scene from a bad video game.

Jason Lee: I completely agree with Edwin's first point--I think it's too early to know what the long-term view of Force Awakens will be. For my part, I came away from the movie theater angry that I'd basically watched a thin, two-hour retread of A New Hope. My own sense is that a lot of people's opinions are colored by a relieved, "at least Disney didn't f* this one up" hue that may not hold up over time, but it would not surprise me at all to be wrong.

Jason Barney: Ultimately, what matters most about the Force Awakens is the presence of the original cast. With the prequels, there was a sense early on that a decision had been made by Lucas to try and market the new direction specifically to children. The presence of Jar-Jar and his goofy actions, the youth of the protagonist, even the droids were all devoted to marketing the product to younger audience. I think a lot of fans of the original three brought their kids, maybe told friends about the experience, but the films really were not embraced. It was Star Wars, but Han and Luke were not there.

In this case, it is a blessing the original actors were able to reprise their roles, and it has a lot to do with the excitement and enthusiasm for this product. Think about it. All three of the Star Wars movies were huge box office draws....with A New Hope at the top of the all-time list for a long time. And now, 30 years later, people are given the chance to revisit that group again. The prequels did not allow that.

Kim Hollis: I would agree that the return of Han, Leia and Luke is critical to people’s reception of the film, but I think it goes beyond that. Rey and Finn (and Poe) are terrific new characters that can now help to propel the franchise forward to new places. A central female character is important, too. All kinds of kids can relate to the primary (good) characters in the film. I’d also argue that Kylo Ren is a much more interesting antagonist than Darth Vader ever was – and the prequels suffered from the fact that the story they were telling was Vader’s. We know where his story ends. We have no idea what may happen with Ren, but his inner conflict is intriguing.

I also think that The Force Awakens did a really great job of setting up future mystery that has people guessing and speculating. The prequels just couldn’t deliver on that. My feeling is that George Lucas was so in love with the idea with telling Vader’s story that he felt like he had to move forward with it, but the honest evaluation is that it probably wasn’t the best story to tell, or one that audiences needed or wanted.

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