Nobody clapped.
And why do movies these days need baked in, cutesy, "funny moments?"
To me, the writing was bad. The plot was poorly sequenced. The whole Finn/Rose/casino plot swirl should have been deleted. Why didn't Holdo just tell Poe what the plan was? At some point, especially when telling a story episodically, you have to limit the plot twists. The story already jumps around and that's fine, but part of telling it like that is limiting. But not for these people. And it ruined the story. Hate to compare it to OT, but the twists were limited and impactful: 1) Vader killing Obi 2) Vader tells Luke 3) Vader turns. Through 2 movies, what twists have been really impactful TO THE STORY (not to sentimental middle aged dudes): 1) Snoke dies. That's it. Han and Luke weren't really that impactful to these stories. So them leaving wasn't really that big a deal. He'll, at this point, Leia being killed would be more impactful (and how are they going to kill her off now that Carrie is gone).
The fight on the planet should have been mirrored by the Snoke showdown. That should have been the climatic moment mirrored by Luke having a worthy ending. Instead, you get the Snoke death, then a bunch of other stuff, then Luke. It drags. Then gets weird with Luke back on the island. Then the kids. The end reminded me of LotRs: Return of the King. You have what should have been the big moment, but there's 15 more mins of crap that doesn't really matter.
The entire Luke story is just wrong. Flat. Out. Wrong. The character we see triumphant at the end of RotJ is just a defeated quitter. Ideals vacated. Bitter. And his exchange with Yoda is bizarre because of it. And that ending...wow. Just dies. No real reason. Just gone.
For the first time, I'm really hating the Disney influence. Cpt. Phasma is nothing more than a shiny prop. People try to compare her to Boba Fett, but Fett never was marketed. It was a cult pickup. Phasma has, from day one, been used as a marketing tool. Nothing more. Just look at the Battlefront2 marketing.
I have no desire to see the movie again. And my expectations for 9 are sewer low. My predictions are easy: long, more plot wiggles than a 3 year old in church (to the point of being annoying), with more throwback scenes than relevant moments between key characters.
Rant over.
