ok so here we go. I have been putting it off because I can't believe I am going to moan about a Star Wars film but the more I think about it the more it does my head in. I have seen it three times and none of my opinions have changed since the first time I saw it. Part of my problem is that I don't quite know how to explain what is wrong with it. I have been thinking about the pros and cons in my head and the number of pros outweigh the number of cons but it is still very bad. There is something missing from it which makes it not feel like a Star Wars film. It is as if somebody had been told about Star Wars who had never seen it before, tried to make a film of what they thought Star Wars was and slapped the name on the front of it. The closest analogy I can come up with is how many people perceive the new Star Trek films. They aren't Star Trek as we know it but the difference is that there is still a Trek-ness to them and they are more Trek than not. For me, this is less Star Wars than it is Star Wars.
Spoiler:
On the plus side, I loved hearing the title theme at the beginning of the film, it immediately gets you into the spirit of things and is something I missed in Rogue One. A lot of the original theme music is in this film and "the force" theme is used many a time and it gave me goose bumps every time I heard it.
It was great to see Yoda again and I can only hope that we see Anakin and Luke in their blue ghostly-ness when it comes to crux time with Kylo Ren in Ep IX.
It was nice to see Leia have a greater role in this film than she did in the previous one. Even more fittingly now that she has passed away is that we got to see her exercise her Jedi powers and use the force. It is just a damn shame that they have already confirmed that she isn't going to be in the next film so I am not sure what they are going to do there because I was expecting her to be killed off in this one and she wasn't.
All the humour was great in the film. I laughed at all the little jokes and I loved the Porgs, I though they were cute and hilarious.
The only thing I am really happy about story wise in this film is Rey's development and growth into a Jedi. She has grown a lot and it is great to see her master her power and ability to use the force.
Cons: that being said, I would have liked to have seen more direct teaching of Jedi-ness and the force to her rather than her just winging it. I can understand that there were time constraints with regards to the story and I felt teased at the beginning of the film when she looked down off the cliff to see Luke's x-wing underwater. I thought "ah, he is going to get her to lift it out of the sea" but that didn't happen and it was fine. The problem is that every time we say Rey use the force it is in anger/frustration/heightened emotional state and we never see her calm and harmonious as Yoda teaches. After everything she had been through in the film the perfect opportunity to show everyone how much she had grown and became a true Jedi would have been with the rocks at the end. She knew what she had to do said to herself something like "just lift some rocks". What would have been amazing here is if we saw her close her eyes, focus, the force theme music kick in and we see her move the rocks. Instead, it cuts to another scene, comes back and she has done it and holding them in mid-air.
I don't know how many of you spotted it but there is a continuity error with the Phasma/Finn fight scene at the end of the film. One minute she is right next to him giving the order for him to be executed and then there is the huge explosion with the ship being torn in half. Everyone in the hanger is dead but she re-enters the hanger as if she was outside all along with a squad of storm troopers.
The opening scene of the film was good apart from who builds bombers that are so slow that they all get pasted before they reach their target? It was pure fluke that they managed to get anywhere close which they wouldn't have done if the First Order fighters had been launched earlier and if the surface cannons hadn't been taken out.
My biggest gripe is at the end of the film and I actually swore out loud because it annoyed me that much. I hate it when things happen which are unrealistic and happen for the sake of the story. The resistance had been pummelled through the whole film so you would have thought that if one of them had the opportunity to deal a crippling blow and save everyone else (just like the Vice Admiral did with the cruiser) they would have done. They were faced with complete defeat and total annihilation in the hanger and Finn had the opportunity to save them all and destroy the canon so what does stupid Rose do? She stops him so everyone else can die and probably her and Finn as well when they crash and the storm troopers catch up to them. She is supposed to be pro-resistance and heroes but she royally screwed them over.
The other big gripe I have which is quite significant because it is the premise of the trilogy is how Kylo Ren came to be a bad guy. It was all down to Luke having one bad moment which didn't go the right way. This never would have happened because it goes against the Jedi's code of conduct. There was a big Star Wars feature in SFX a couple of issues ago and one of the things they did were the Top 10 rules for being a Jedi and one of them is that Jedi only use their powers for defence and they never attack an unarmed person. As soon as I saw that scene in the film I felt like the film was betraying Luke and the Jedi as a whole.
Given that there was so much happening in the film and the lack of time they were spending with teaching Rey the whole casino planet trip was annoying me but I understand why they did it. They had to setup an oppressed society and culture to tie in with the message at the end of the film.
As a change up it was good to see Snoke die in this film and not reign as the big bad for the trilogy. My only problem is that we don't know who he is or how he came to power. I can only hope that it is something they reference and clear up in ep IX. On the plus side, we know who Rey's parents are but if they were random farming peasants from nowhere then surely there must be more Jedi out there developing their powers and in need of training? They could make a whole trilogy just out of Rey going round the galaxy, finding baby Jedi and setting up a new school and temple and training them all.
There are good bits and bad bits to all films and most of the time they are just little niggles but you still enjoy the film. For me this wasn't Star Wars. I haven't got niggles, I have got big problems and there are too many of them and cumulatively they take away the Star Wars feel to the film. I read that Mark Hamill didn't like the story at all going into the film and now I know why.
My only hope is that the next film returns to Star Wars as we know it as JJ is coming back.