So in about 27 days Elon Musk will reveal his big SpaceX plans for a whole new Mars colonisation architecture, with new rockets. Could be very exciting stuff.

I believe there's a line of dialogue in the film that implies the raid on Jakku was his first combat mission. We can deduce that the double whammy of seeing his friend(s) killed and being ordered to execute unharmed people is something that doesn't sit well with him. This is the first true test and he 'fails'. I'm not sure that that really requires further explanation or justification. After all, Vader kills the Emperor because the torture of Luke is the step too far in his eyes.

Finn's subsequent turn isn't instanteous if you remember, and I wouldn't call it based on a superficial whim, first he's merely running, then he meets someone that he likes enough to want to impress, and his going along to Starkiller base is part wanting to save that someone. I think the key points of his arc are all on-screen and well done, without needing to bring too much of your own concrete.

Star Trek is shock full of contrivances which are far more egregious than anything in TFA. Though it's ironic that one of my least favourite things in TFA is mirrored in Star Trek (characters seeing planets light years away getting blown up with the naked eye).

The scrutiny is a thing that only ever comes out when one dislikes a movie. None of the issues you mentioned are actually bad. You choose to highlight these trivial aspects to retrospectively justify why you didn't like the movie. That's fine to do. But they don't make TFA a really bad or broken movie. None of these are near the level of a villain whose motivations make no fucking sense (looking at you Nero).

... wait, how does TFA pull its punches in the third act? I don't think that means what you think it means 

In no particular order:
Force Awakens
The Martian
Mad Max Fury Road
Inside Out
Tomorrowland
Avengers Age of Ultron
Ant-Man

I also enjoyed Jurassic World and MI: Rogue Nation. Creed has only just come out in the UK and I haven't seen it yet, but I imagine that might have been on my favourites list as well.

We may have to coin a new SW version of the save the cat phrase - 'repair a droid'. The moment that Rey fixes BB-8's antenna is so effective in making us like her, perhaps without us even realising.

On my first viewing, I liked it lot. It's a crowd-pleaser of a movie, provoking laughs, ahs, cheers and shocks. The three new protagonists are utterly endearing and Boyega has superb chemistry with both Daisy and Oscar. I buy all the character moments and their motivations. It's like a modern superhero comic movie, firing on all cylinders.

Seeing it a second time, I loved it. I believe this is the kind of movie that may get better with every viewing. So much stuff to notice. So many great lines. I can't wait for the bluray. I have a hearing problem so some of the dialogue of the masked characters I found difficult to hear, so it would be great to read the subtitles for these parts. The sound volume did seem louder this second time, so I did hear a lot of things I missed the first time.

It's by no means flawless. There's a CGI character that likely won't age well and there didn't seem to me to be that many stand out new music themes. There are lots of key story and setting details that are left untold, but that's not necessarily a failing.

Is something wrong with me? I saw the new Fantastic Four movie and didn't hate it.

After enjoying Jurassic World, Terminator Genysis and, hell, even TMNT, I feel like something is broken.

Recommend me a bad movie guys, I need to recalibrate my sensors.

Ok, so Hobbit 3 EE is 'available'. It's definitely a lot more violent, and the battle scenes are the most expanded element of the film (understandable given the nature of this one).

There's no fix for the Ravenhill scenes (obviously), and these are still probably the weakest parts of the film (it's needlessly convoluted and the whole 'Kili and Fili are sent ahead to investigate' stuff makes no sense).

It's also filled with humour that's a whole lot funnier than 99% of the Alfrid stuff. I'm amazed at how out of place his scenes are. He's Jar Jar Binks level awful in this.

There are a couple of scenes, including a bit with Legolas, which are absurdly ridiculous.

I'm looking forward to getting the bluray and listening to the commentary.

Just come back from seeing The Martian. Great film, with fantastic cinematography, engrossing story and endearing characters. Doesn't hurt that it's hard sci-fi. It's my new favourite movie of all time - and yes, it's definitely a better story than Gravity.

Heyho, any updates on this one? It has been quiet for a couple of years now.

I thought this was enjoyable but yeah, lots of plot holes. The largest is, of course, who sent the terminators back to 1973. The entire story rests upon this, and them leaving it open is either extraordinary lazy storytelling or gutsy. Though to be honest, how Skynet is able to send back the T-1000 is a plot hole in T2.

I love the concept of playing with the 1984 events, even reversing the roles, but the moment the story resolves 1984 it devolves into stupidity. There's a time machine, they travel more than 30 years into the future to mere days before the singularity, they have the same plan as Sarah had in T2, they meet Evil John Connor, and they resolve the conflict through violence which predictably doesn't work.

Also, how does Sarah know where the Time Machine is in the future, so that she can tell John? I've seen Terminator, and there's not lot of time for Kyle to give her that kind of detail.