To be fair I can see where elements from the original trilogy were picked up just from this comment alone from at least the first two films, though I think there's enough differences between them to make them distinct from one another.

- Yes, Jakku is a desert planet, thing is you don't really see C3PO or R2D2 going up to some robot ranch to find Luke Skywalker, instead you have a Finn betraying the Storm-troopers since he probably hasn't seen much military action and saving Poe and his droid BB-8 crash landing there to find some shit hole poverty stricken area to ding Rey who happens to be searching for parts on a destroyed Imperial Empire ship. And Rey doesn't exactly have any family she's living with she's just stranded out in the middle of nowhere.

- To be fair, I can't really say that Han is much of a mentor figure in the same sense that Obi-Wan Kenobi is to both the Skywalkers or Qui-Gon Jinn is to Obi-Wan. If anything he's just getting dragged along into another mess and helping out Finn and Rey as much as he can and confirming the fact that Luke is still alive. Sure, you could argue that he has gained some knowledge of the force but bear in mind he probably knows it just from sticking around Leia and Luke some time during Kylo's training with Luke, doesn't mean he really teaches anyone how to use it. You could also make the argument that he gets killed by Kylo-Ren like Obi-wan died to Vader/Annakin and how Qui-Gon died to Darth Maul. But what sticks out about Han's death is that he's getting killed by his own son instead of someone who is related to him.

- On another subject about the mentors though, the one where Rey is trying to find Luke is being drawn as a similarity to Luke finding Yoda, that is true. Consider that Rey never really had a proper mentor for one. Most of the time she pulled the force out of her ass and went through trial and error in order to get by in the starkiller base and being able to pull off a jedi mind trick in three tries. I'm assuming she picked some of this up in the force vision she had from holding Luke's old lightsaber that somehow came into the hands of an alien some time after the end of the Empire Strikes Back where it fell millions of feet in the sky. This is one massive difference between her and Luke that I don't think many people realize.

-The Battle on the Starkiller base is pretty much a frozen waste-land battle that is actually, a hybrid between the Death Star Battles and the Battle on Hoth. But there's no AT-AT walkers so that's a big enough difference for me. Also Finn and Rey fought Kylo Ren here before the base blew up.

-Did I mention that the Starkiller base destroyed a whole system that was witnessed by everyone compared to one planet being blown up and then just one jedi saying "I feel a disturbance in the force"?

-Also the only difference I can see in the fight on that took place on Takadana and Endor is that instead of Ewoks, you get TR-8R, this badass over here:

One could make the argument that this fight between him and Finn is the only political reference in this movie but that's another story. The real point is that you have a fucking stormtrooper fighting someone using a light saber and not a typical jedi fight.

So we all good covering some of the differences here? good.

Even with the recycled stuff and problems, It still ended up a solid movie. Shits over Phantom Menace by a long shot.
I was kinda expecting Finn to be the new Jedi as much as everyone else. Felt disappointed, but's that's from someone whose seen the same actor being a badass in Attack the Block. He seems to be the Han Solo of the new heroes, that's still fine.
Rey receives a lot of shit from whiners, calling her a Mary Sue and whatnot. She was an okay character, not on the same level as Ellen Ripley, but still okay. I'm all for a female Jedi seeing as I can only think of the ones featured in mostly the spinoffs and prequels.
I saw through the ship-teasing between Ray and Finn too. I don't mind if they do become a couple.
Seeing Han Solo get killed by his own son did make my jaw drop. I was in silent shock through the whole scene. I mean this is one of the original characters we grew up with, and seeing him die was sad for all of us. Chewie had every right to go on a rampage.
As for other ones. BB-8 was a fun droid, having as much snark as R2D2. Maz feels like she's going to be the next Yoda. I'm okay with that.
But I wish Captain Phasma got used more. Kylo Ren was cool with the mask on, his face just screams emo loser though.
But that seems to be intentional seeing as he acts like an angry Darth Vader fanboy, and chucking tantrums that even the Stormtroopers avoid.
Seeing Mark Hamill as Luke again, even if its at the very end, was awesome. Him being the next Obi-Wan will be exciting.

Man, seeing practical effects dominating over the CGI was a nice piece of fresh air. That pig-like animal was operated by five people!
But even the CGI had it's problems in the film. Most fingers pointing at Snoke. For an Andy Serkis character, he was too obvious a CGI design, even with being a hologram. Yeah, he looks less convincing than Gollum, which makes it a bit funny in hindsight.
Another nitpick is how the First Order are obvious stand-ins for Nazis. Isn't that cliche getting a bit boring now? It's overused.
Sure the Starbase Killer is a bigger Death Star, but it combines concepts originally from the expanded universe.

Overall, not the best followup to any series. But it was still a fun movie. I give it the average rating of seven stars out of ten.

I overall didn't have any major issue with the film, I definitely see where it tried to build-upon or tie into, or pay homage the original trilogy.

I have no complaints, there...

As far as originality goes, I know that there's actually only so much "originality" that's even possible.
Don't believe me? Look at ANYTHING, story, game, movie, weapon from one of these, or even the lore/mythology in its universe. It's all built-upon some concept or story that already has been created. Disassemble it to these components, you'll realize how little its "inventor" truly created, themselves. EVERYTHING is built upon that which was previously conceived or accomplished. Even the "syfy original movies", I don't mind too much. (and ALL of those recycle the basic plot of one of the many before them)

I cannot say Force Awakens bothers me very much. I had my concerns before seeing it, simply because Disney is certainly not the same Disney so many of us have grown-up with. I think it's the pricing on Star Wars merchandise of any kind that's REALLY annoying me. The movie I found was enjoyable. Certainly not a repeat of Phantom Menace, which I must agree, although it took me a while to reach this realization... is extremely boring.

The film has definitely managed to build enough suspense/anticipation that I HAVE to know what happens next.
(ofc, I'll be watching the next one regardless, my brother-in-law will ensure that!)
Even so, Disney still has two or more opportunities to screw something up very badly in another movie or spin-off series.

Personally, I am quite pleased with how they've laid things out and told the story thus far. I think they chose the right places to re-use or re-interpret parts of the Original Trilogy, and it's also cool to see they even brought-back some of the concept designs that didn't make the cut.

I'm not going to spoil anything major here if I can avoid it, I actually quickly modified my post in the movies thread short after positing it to eradicate any mention even that it builds-upon or is a love letter, or really, in ANY way, other than what the trailers imply, relates to the OT

he dies fuck that

Finn's not dead lol, just badly injured. those lightsaber cuts can be real bad lemme tell ya


but is it kinda weird tho that i kinda want the bromance between Poe and Finn to be highlighted in the next film. help

I also think Kylo Ren's purposely a really shitty bad guy so he becomes this really awesome, grizzled badass by the third one - like he's purposely a humongous fucking baby because of his struggle with wanting to submit himself fully to the dark side (remember he keeps getting those flashbacks of wanting to go back to the Light) like, he either becomes a cool Jedi that just ends up double-crossing the Resistance by episode IX or is further brainwashed by Snoke And Friends to be a mindless puppet of the dark side (the only downside would be he's an even more stiff character than he already is, d'oh

The movie starts with a droid getting some important Rebel information that cannot be given to the Empire at all costs. The robot escapes while the owner is captured and brought to an Imperial Star Destroyer to be interrogated by the current Sith Lord in training. Meanwhile, the robot wanders around the desert until caught by alien scavengers, and is later rescued by a young Jedi scavenger who doesn’t realize they’re a Jedi yet. Stormtroopers come and destroy the home city of the Jedi scavenger, and they in turn leave the planet on the Millennium Falcon accompanied by the bounty hunter Han Solo. After avoiding capture by the Empire by hiding near another Star Destroyer, they escape and soon find themselves under the command of Princess Leia, the commander of the Rebel forces. The Imperial Death Star starts toasting planets, so they devise a clever plan to fly a small squadron of X-wings in to attack the only weak point of the Death Star. One of these pilots is a big fat guy who we kinda like but he dies off as they fly close to the surface of the Death Star because why not. The really important X-wing pilot lives, though, which is a good thing because he hits the critical spot that causes the Death Star to blow up. Everyone celebrates and the protagonist goes off to consult an old Jedi master.

Don’t know yet? Have some more clues:
* Jedi use mind tricks on stormtroopers
* The protagonist uses the Force to grab their lightsaber stuck in snow while they’re on the planet Hoth
* There’s a big long extended scene in an alien bar that serves no purpose aside from showing off how many cool aliens the movie makers could think of
* A character everyone thought was important gets killed off by the Sith Lord’s trainee
* The Sith Lord’s trainee wears a black mask that covers his face, and is directly related to Princess Leia and another main character
* Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, C-3PO, R2-D2 and Chewbacca all appear in this film
* A female character resists the Empire’s interrogation techniques because she is strong in the Force
* Protagonists get stuck in a ship while trying to take off

You described A New Hope and shoehorned two points from Empire Strikes Back, because Han doesn't leave with them from the desert planet directly in Awakens, there is no Death Star, but instead Starkiller base, and there is no Hoth in awakens.