The Force Awakens v A New Hope: 18 plot points are the same. EIGHTEEN! JJ Abrams pulled a Wrath of Khan with the Star Wars franchise. By that I mean, we shouldn't be surprised that JJ Abrams borrowed heavily from A New Hope and the beginning of Empire Strikes Back. He remade Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (and called it Star Trek: Into Darkness) and no one called him on that so why not recast and tweak A New Hope?
To be clear, I liked Force Awakens OK. It's just startling how much they based the story on the original movie.