Finally saw the film. Bit of a mixed bag, this one. I enjoyed this far more than Rogue One, though. As a spectacle it was incredible at times. An absolute visual feast... and I certainly wasn't as offended as some clearly seem to be on the direction the Star Wars is heading, or what was done with the characters. I guess I just don't care enough about Star Wars to get bent out of shape. I really enjoyed the subversion of expectations for the most part and thought there was a lot of brave decisions made by Rian Johnson. Maybe a few too many brave decisions, but it didn't really detract from my enjoyment.
Poe was more fleshed out and I really liked his character. Finn and Roses subplot was the weakest link in the movie for mine, although Finn's character actually has a full arc - by the end of the film he has bought into what the resistance are fighting for and tries to give his own life to the cause. I thought Luke could have physically turned up on Crait rather than a projection and it wouldn't have changed the movie too much. I thought Snoke was used well, and I love the idea of a Skywalker being the new Supreme Leader of the bad guys. Kylo Ren was again excellent in this film, Driver is the real star of the saga for mine. Interesting character with a lot of depth. I also like Rey potentially being a nobody, I don't see why she needs to be related to someone from the earlier films. There are other force sensitive people in the galaxy besides the bloody Skywalkers and Kenobis. To be honest I think they even have wriggle room to backtrack on that if they really want to anyway. I didn't even really have a problem with Leia's space flight, although the execution was a little underwhelming.
One thing I will say about both Rogue One and TLJ is that the comedy has been falling flat for me. I got some chuckles, but there was a lot of cringe in there too.
Judging by many comments in this thread and elsewhere, people who aren't obsessed with the franchise seem to really like it, whilst the Star Wars nerds seem to abhor it. There were a fair few flaws, but the overall enjoyment of the movie far outweighed the nitpicks that I had. I think it's really sad that people are getting all pissy because the characters from the original trilogy all ended up "failures". That is by far the dumbest criticism I've heard yet, but I guess that's the mind of a fanboy. Life doesn't always end up hunky dory, even for heroes. They were the heroes of the original trilogy and succeeded in their goals there, that doesn't mean things pan out for them happily ever after. They kinda need bad guys if they are to continue the story, and if you perceive the presence of bad guys to mean that they OG heroes failed then you're doomed to disappointment. Where they all ended up made sense with the story we've been presented. The whole messaging of the movie was that people need to let go of the past and move forward... but it seems that many people are simply incapable of accepting the new.
That hyperspeed kamikaze. Wow. Amazing moment - perfectly executed. Who cares if it's never been established that it's possible to do such a thing. It was f**king fantastic.
All in all, I'd give it an 8/10. To say this movie is anywhere near as bad as the prequels is a total travesty. You have to cherry-pick to find anything good about those films at all. This is pretty much the inverse of that for mine, there's a tonne of great stuff in there sprinkled with some flops.
