Overall, I am disappointed. I didn't love it. It's good, but it's not nearly as good as The Force Awakens or Rogue One.
Firstly, this movie borrows a huge amount of imagery from Return of the Jedi, especially the scene with the Millennium Falcon flying through the salt caverns (complete with the same music used for the scene of flying through the innards of the second Death Star) and the scene with Snoke, Rey, and Kylo Ren (looking at a Rebel fleet being destroyed, the lightsabre on Snoke/the Emperor's right, all sorts of things). The unnecessary Yoda cameo was a huge break in the mood during the middle of the movie. And it really felt like they had nothing for Finn so they cobbled something together for the guy. Another disappointing non-appearance from Captain Phasma. A waste of Benicio del Toro with an entirely under-developed character. Leia's ability to survive the depths of space seemed too much, even as a desperation ploy for a character with latent Force abilities.
However, my least favourite part was the fact that every single character was full to the brim with snarky Starlord-esque quips. This movie played far too close to the edge of a comedy, and at the wrong moments, seeking levity to take me out of a deeper, darker scene. Combined with the overabundance of cute characters (did we really need to see that many porgs? I mean, they're fine on their own, but they infested the Millennium Falcon like so many tribbles), the movie has a pretty significant tone problem.
Okay. So all that being said, let's get to what I liked, which is still quite a lot. I loved everything between Kylo Ren and Rey. The way Snoke played Ren and Rey; the way Ren played Snoke. I thought Luke was well written. His flaws as a teacher were evident. His failures as a Jedi master moreso. The final confrontation between him and Kylo Ren was awesome, and I will admit I love that he manifested in such a way as to intimidate Kylo Ren, appearing with the same visage he wore the last night Ben Solo saw his uncle in the flesh. I thought the Rebellion (oh, sorry, Resistance) storyline was superb. The ticking clock was really cool and watching the fleet slowly fail was also wonderful. Vice-Admiral Laura Dern was also great, and giving Poe Dameron a role model to emulate (which we see him starting to emulate by the end of the film) was a really smart move. I wish they had taken the time to establish her earlier, but otherwise, a great performance from a very stately actor.
I thought the Rose character, if fairly stereotypical, was really interesting. The concepts of hero worship were explored fairly well, although I couldn't help but feel the entire movie should have been about hero worship, and the deconstruction of the hero archetype. Rey losing faith in Luke; Ren's youthful betrayal by Luke followed by his loss of Snoke as a hero. The young children on Planet Las Vegas looking up to the Rebels. Poe looking at Leia in a new light. Rose and Finn. The problem is that the movie's net was cast too wide to make this the core message, but it's there in a pretty strong manner.
Using the cruiser as a lightspeed torpedo was fucking awesome, full stop. The salt planet was really cool visually.
And I absolutely hate to say this...but if Luke needed to communicate with anyone from his past, any of the Force ghosts...it should have been Anakin Skywalker. And yes, I realize that means giving Hayden Christensen work. But his father would have been the right person to deliver the message of "sometimes it's okay to tear it all down." Though I will admit silly Yoda was a delight to see again after three prequels of oddly serious Yoda...though it did still stop the damn movie dead.
And using your $300 million dollar blockbuster to give a huge fuck you to the Internet fan community who spent two years obsessively ruminating about Rey's parents was gorgeous. There were fucking appalled gasps in the room and people were whispering that maybe Kylo Ren was lying! But my thought is that if Anakin Skywalker came from nothing, why not Rey? So yeah, I loved that part, I loved Kylo and Ren killing the guards, it was damn cool.
Maybe I'm over-critical of the little stuff, but like I said, the biggest problem was tone, trying to force too many laughs out of me and trying to have the wrong characters make me laugh. Star Wars shouldn't need to be Guardians of the Galaxy. It can have some humour in the form of characters like Threepio's effete pompousness or a Han Solo's drawling dry humour, but having every single character, from Poe to Luke Skywalker making fast-talking quips? BB-8's physical humour reminded me waaaay too much of some of the R2 clown stuff from Revenge of the Sith. He's adorable, he doesn't need to be funny. Come on. It's not needed.
The lore of the games a) is not canon b) is already mapped out, so it's not a blank canvas they keep talking about c) is not something a filmmaker like RJ would want to retell (he wouldn't like to retell anything). It's still possible that the new trilogy will take place in a "KotOR-style period". Centuries or thousands of years before The Phantom Menace. I think a story about the early Jedi is very likely, especially since it's something Rian touches on in The Last Jedi.
