The Force Awakens

I had confidence in Disney when the sale was announced in 2012. During speculation about what the next trilogy should be like, I predicted that the protagonist would be a girl, based on the knowledge of the intention for the sequels was "pass on what you have learned", the exhaustion of the father-son story in episodes 1-6, and the fact that Luke was a girl in some early concept art for the original Star Wars. I also expected Palpatine to return, as he seemed to represent a larger-than-life evil in the Star Wars mythology. I thought Dark Empire was authentic in this sense, though I knew the EU was not to be followed. I also remember saying on the TFN forums that the visual patterns and rhythms of the story and dialogue would need to be followed carefully. This expectation would come back to bite.
When Arndt was announced to write, I had hopes based on my emotional reaction to Toy Story 3 (I've only seen it once and it made me cry like a woman). When he was fired and J.J. Abrams took the project over my attitude became more skeptical, and I would withhold judgment until the trilogy wrapped up.
I saw it opening day, kind of unexpectedly. I had some time before work, I had just gotten paid, and the theater had plenty of seats so I just went in. I had planned to see it with a friend later that weekend, but I didn't want to risk any spoilers. The opening theme music felt plastic, like in the video games. The first scene impressed me. I liked Kylo and his music. Oscar Isaac and the ball droid felt like a pair, and they hit the beats very quickly with a "stay here" moment for BB-8. The red-eyed creature poking its head out of the sand was a bit on-the-nose, but nostalgic. Finn and Rey were very likable, and Rey's theme was magical. The familiar beats were starting to become a bit too familiar by the time the Empire started searching the sand planet for droids though. By the time Han Solo showed up, I was reminded of the 2011 film The Muppets in which young underdeveloped characters meet their heroes in a state of defeat and reluctance, urging them to return to The Great Mission and to Do The Thing. In the last ten years, this formula has been done to death in many of my beloved childhood franchises including Ghostbusters and now (damn you, Tim Burton) Beetlejuice. "YOU'RE LIDYA DEETZ? YOU'RE A LEGEND!"
It went mostly downhill from there. The rathtars were a cartoon from the lackluster first sequel to Men in Black. And as if the Disnified cantina sequence with its dull pookie-pookie music wasn't nauseating enough, the Minion-esque Yoda stand in was by far the cheapest letdown in the movie for me. I did enjoy the sexual tension between Kylo and Rey, and the Han Solo death scene felt pretty authentic and well-executed. I was being patient with the mystery behind Ray's parentage and Snoke's identity, though ultimately they would not really pay off. I think the director had an understanding of R2-D2's mystical role in the original films, because when he suddenly came to life from his mechanical coma, I let out an audible laugh in the theater. JJ's biggest strength with Star Wars ended up being clever, but surface-level metaphors involving lovable droids. He ended up voicing D-0 himself in Episode 9. Perhaps he feels abused by the whole experience.
I left the theater, cautiously optimistic, but decidedly underwhelmed. My friend was upset that I had seen the movie without him, but Star Wars is very personal for me, and I take its spiritual subtext very seriously, while he was more of a special effects enthusiast and casual fan. My friend was also a dogmatic atheist and more of a Trekkie, so we would have been on very different pages anyway.

I don't remember much. I remember going in with zero expectations and they were about met. The lack of any kind of substantial world-building was to he expected, so that didn't surprise me. I was pleasently entertained, so it worked on a superficial level. What definitely rubbed me the wrong way was how they really sucked at imitating the wipes and how most of those glorious Lucasian establishing shots were gone. Looking back, what I "appreciate" the most about TFA these days - and that's a backhanded compliment for sure - is how it managed to make me a lot more aware of Lucas' distinctive cinematic style for Star Wars.

The lead-up was horrible. It was a majority of bullies getting pleasure from silencing a tiny minority, fully supported by the "media". It was disgusting and put to the forefront what I hate about humans.

I remember finding out that Disney ditched Lucas´s Episodes VII-IX story treatments and the fury at seeing most of the fans being perfectly OK with it, even flat out approving of it. And the disgusting marketing campaign for the movie specially designed to kiss the Lucas haters´ asses.

I knew from that moment that the trilogy was going to be garbage.