Saw the film last night, here are my thoughts after having some time to digest:
I *think* I love this movie. It's a weird thing to say, but there were so many WTF moments that it wasn't until I had time to think and piece them together that I really appreciated them.
This is the most complex, philosophical Star Wars movie, and I love that kind of s**t. The more you dig into it, the more it rewards you.
Things I loved:
- The humor. Easily the funniest Star Wars movie, and it isn't even close. I know some people didn't like it and thought it undercut the tone, but I thought it was fantastic.
- All of the performances. I seriously can't think of a single actor/actress that didn't put in a good performance. Mark Hamill was amazing, Carrie Fisher was great (huge step up from TFA), Adam Driver was terrific, Kelly Marie Tran, Oscar Issac, etc., etc.
- Cinematography. Just a beautiful film. Best since Empire in that regard.
- Snoke. I found him to be compelling and I love his personality and (albeit limited) show of his powers. I was conflicted about him being killed in this movie, because I wanted to see more of him, but the more I think about it, I'm glad they did it. Let's Kylo be the big bad and truly makes this sequel different.
- Kylo Ren. Loved his character arc, and I find him to be fascinating. I appreciate that we can relate to him to a certain degree on a more personal level than all of the other Star Wars villains.
- Action sequences. The space battles, Kylo/Rey throne room battle, etc. I thought they were some of the best actions scenes we've seen in a Star Wars.
- Crait. Such a cool design for a planet, and it was executed to perfection. Can't say enough good things about it.
- Yoda. The scene was probably fan service, but I loved that they used him to deliver some really great lines and it brought so much weight to Luke's character arc from Ep. IV to VIII.
- Canto Bight. I didn't love everything that happened here (will get to that), but I love what this world introduced and potentially sets up for future movies. Some really cool big picture plot lines can come out of this, if JJ does it right.
Things I wasn't crazy about:
- Didn't love the Leia superman in space thing. Maybe I need to see it again. But it just felt a little...silly? I would've chosen another way to show her force powers.
- Rey left a little bit to be desired. I don't think Daisy Ridley was as good in this as she was in TFA. While I think this movie set her up to have some really big moments in Ep. 9, I just felt like I wanted more from her character arc in this particular movie.
- The whole Finn/Rose riding on a space horse was just kind of meh. Felt random and out of place. I think Rian could have come up with a much better storyline for them on that planet.
- Really was hoping for a bad*** Luke fight scene. I understand why Rian didn't do it, and I think it would've simply been fan service. But I can't lie and say it didn't leave me disappointed that we never got it in this new trilogy.
Considering how dense this movie was, I'm going to be thinking about this movie for a while, and I know I'm not remembering everything now. Looking forward to seeing it again - probably won't be able to rank it until the 2nd or 3rd viewing. I definitely think this is a better movie than TFA, but I'm trying to decide if I love it like I did the TFA. It's just so so different.