Just got back from seeing it and I'm kinda let down by it. It wasn't bad it just wasn't very good or exciting in my opinion. I'll break down a few things I noticed and thought.
Action: The action over all was good. There was some good saber fights. The fight with Rey, Kylo and the Imperial guards was entertaining. And there was a decent but short fight between Luke and Kylo. There was also some pretty good chase sequences but nothing totally over the top amazing. There wasn't really much ground troop fighting though. So I was a bit let down on that front. But the whole bomber sequence was pretty good other than the fact that they overpowered Poe and his piloting abilities again.
Humor: The humor felt really out of place to me for a Star Wars movie. It wasn't all the cringy fan-service that was in TFA but it kind of annoyed me. They literally make a "your mom" joke.
Story: Over all I was pretty underwhelmed with the entire plot of the movie. There was quite a few subplots pulled out of thin air that pretty much lead nowhere. They kinda just invent new characters to do whatever they need them to do at a given moment. Oh no Leia is in a coma, well we'll just pull out another old commander woman to fill her shoes and do things almost exactly the same way she would have(Admiral Holdo). That kind of made me wonder why they had Leia absent in the first place. The whole movie they kinda just did the same thing. It really felt like it took a while to go anywhere and then once they did move on they were in a nearly identical situation with an identical outcome.
In the beginning, the rebels are trying to get their transports away from a large First Order ship. Some want to stay and fight (Poe) and others want to flee so they can suffer fewer losses (Leia). So some attack the First Order ship and someone has to sacrifice themselves (Nameless bomber pilot) in order to blow it and its really big death cannons up, and let the rest of the rebels escape. This then happens again, as the rebels thought they had escaped, another big ship (Snoke's Ship) has tracked and found them. So once again, some want to fight (Poe) and some want to flee to save lives (Admiral Holdo). And again someone sacrifices themselves to blow up the big enemy ship. This time its Holdo who lightspeeds the frigate into the First Order ship allowing the rebels to make an escape to where they think is safe. Then once again the First Order is barreling down on the rebels, this time on the ground. The First Order has a big cannon and they are about to kill the rebels when someone has to draw off the enemy (Luke in a ghost form or something) while the rest of the rebels escape. So overall the story was pretty much "rebels escaping the movie."
There were several events in the story that I didn't see coming. I didn't think they were gonna kill off Snoke like that. They built him up in the last movie as the one who seduced Kylo do the dark side and caused him to kill off Han and Luke's other students. And they had him as a really powerful seeming sith in this movie. He could throw both Kylo and Rey around with ease but then they just kinda kill him with little build-up or consequence. So now the only villain we're left with is Kylo, who we've already established can be beat by Rey who had never even held a lightsaber before. but they weren't jaw-dropping surprises. Nothing particularly new or interesting about the characters was revealed. Overall I could see most things coming. Little about the movie surprised me. So I was kinda disappointed by that.
The Characters: There were some new characters in this one. I didn't really care for any of them though. All of them were kinda just there to either substitute for an old character or to perform a task the plot needed to be performed. I'll break down what I thought about some of them.
- Rey: Overall I liked her more in this movie than I did in the Force Awakens. She wasn't as much of an all powerful Mary Sue. But Her whole build up in the trailers kind of led to nothing in my opinion. It seemed she was going to struggle with the dark and light sides of the force. Once Luke Finally starts training her, she's instantly being drawn to the dark side and Luke is afraid of this. But then she never really does anything bad or ever makes us think she's actually turning to the dark side other than she goes to the "dark side of the island" that she and Luke are on because she thinks it can offer her knowledge or power. But then the dark side really doesn't offer her anything. So she never really has any reason to go there after that.
- Finn: Finn was pretty much like he was in TFA. He starts off trying to run away again, he gets chased, he eventually has to fight a storm trooper with a zappy stick, (sound familiar) and he finally ends up acting like hero and tries to sacrifice himself to blow up the big enemy canon thats aimed at the rebel base. He lives though. Which I thought was kinda safe for the movie. I mean he was ready to blow up the canon and buy the rebels time and go out the most heroic way he could. But then he's forcefully diverted by Rose.
- Luke: He kind of just annoyed me for most of the movie. His being depressed and refusing to train Rey was kind of foreseeable and just kind of stalls the whole movie. He never really did much to show himself as the Jedi Master he was. He just mopes up until the end when he has the ability to project himself away to fight Kylo and then just kind of pulls a Ben Kenobi and vanishes to be one with the Force.
- Leia: She is pretty much the level headed rebel leader shes always been. Except it's reveled she is able to use the Force which is something I appreciated as she is of the Skywalker bloodline.
- Poe: Poe is the same untouchable pilot he was in the last movie. His character doesn't really change. (Just on a personal note, I can't stand how overpowered he is. He doesn't even have the Force which is what allowed Anakin and Luke to be such good pilots in the first place.)
- Rose: Rose was an okay character but she kinda just came from nowhere to become a helper to the story.
- Holdo: She pretty much was just a stand in Leia. She really didn't do much until she went sacrificed herself as mentioned earlier
- Chewy: Chewy didn't change any or really do much but pilot the Falcon
- Kylo: Kylo was more interesting to me in this movie than in the Force Awakens but he still never really felt like a threat. I liked the fact that he's clearly conflicted but it never really pays off more than once When he kills snoke.
- Snoke: Snoke started good. But the end result just made his whole existence feel pointless. I mean he just gets killed like that. No struggle, no last dying action no reincarnation as a ghost. Noting he just croaks with nothing about who he was or what he was capable of being explained.
Things that didn't make sense to me: This will basically be one long spoiler block.
- Why is it Poe is such a good pilot? He blows up every gun on a major First Order ship and fights off TIEs while only breaking a sweat.
- Why didn't the First Order just speed up to catch the rebel ships they are chasing the whole dang movie. Maybe I missed something but that whole situation lasted for way too much of the movie?
- What was with the whole tracking through lightspeed thing? They say that it was impossible and then kind of just explain it away.
- Why didn't the First Order ships have some sort of shields to prevent Holdo from ramming the Mon Calamari cruiser into them? They didn't prepare for that possibility? After all they know the rebels are out of options and think they are going to die.
- Why didn't the other ships in the fleet that were about to run out of fuel go kamikaze on the First Oder ships? They just wait to run out of fuel and get blown up?
- What was with the whole trippy hall of mirrors that Rey was in? I mean really what was that supposed to be?
- Since when can Jedi project their physical forms in order to duel someone halfway across the galaxy?
- Are we really supposed to feel sympathetic for Kylo just because he thought Luke was trying to kill him? I mean he doesn't just run away and hate Luke. He kills most of Lukes students and runs off with a handful of others.
- Where are the Knights of Ren anyway?
The Porg: They serve no purpose in the film other than comic relief and to sell toys. They are basically Ewoks who can't even fight.
Overall it was an enjoyable movie. I just didn't really like it as a Star Wars movie.
7/10 from me
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