Just got back from the theater, and that was an absolute blast. I'm really having a crazy hard time imagining how someone could sit through it and say it was bad. (Hell, my own brother did, and I told him to his face he's full of ****.) Minor quibbles? Parts that felt rushed and/or shoehorned in? Of course. It wasn't a perfect film, if such a thing exists. The bit with the casino in particular felt like it needed some significant editing. But there were so many fantastic moments, big and small, and a huge amount of both homages to and unexpected subversions of the original trilogy. Random things I really enjoyed, in no particular order:
-Yeah, the massive gravity-creating bombers were kind of silly, but that opening fight had me pumped otherwise. Poe remains a massively likeable character and I want a real BB-8.
-It was so bittersweet seeing Carrie Fisher one last time, but she nailed every scene she was in. Was her floating her way out of vacuum silly? Most likely, but I couldn't help but cheer anyway. It was nice to have a reminder that she was almost as strong in the Force as her brother, despite never putting it to use. I loved her interactions with Poe; it's so clear that she sees a lot of Han in him. I'll just forever regret that we'll never get to see what she would have done in the last film. I'm expecting they'll wind up having her die offscreen before then.
-With all apologies to Mark Hamill, I thought Luke's character arc was handled just fine. As previously mentioned, we saw clear glimpses of how easily Luke could be tempted by the Dark Side in the original trilogy, and given what he experienced with his own father, is it too much to imagine him having a single moment of doubt, and then being devastated when it went horribly wrong? I loved R2 "playing dirty" to remind him of what it was he'd fought for in the first place. He had a great rapport with Rey, and I think someone was cutting onions during that last scene with Leia. And the shoulder-brush? Max swag points.
I genuinely thought for a moment that they were going to pull another Han, or at the very least Obi-Wan, but it was a brilliant subversion. I can't even say I felt sad about his fate, since he clearly chose to pass into the Force of his own free will. Plus his last act on this plane of existence was ****ing with Kylo in every conceivable way possible.
(But oh God, that milking scene...
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-Rey was a bit of a tabula rasa in TFA, but I think she finally came into her own here. She had some legitimate agency throughout the movie, and while she wound up facing the same conflicts Luke did during the original trilogy, she came to different conclusions than he did. I legitimately love the (apparent) fact that she wound up not being a Skywalker or Solo or anyone significant. She's just a nobody, which makes what she's able to accomplish all the more satisfying. She works extremely well as the flip-side of the coin with Kylo; I loved their interactions with each other. It was great to see her come to a realization of what the Force truly is and her own place in it.
-Speaking of coming into their own, Kylo feels like far more than a tempestuous angsty teen now. I mean he's still angsty as hell, but with some actual depth to his inner conflict. It was a spectacular touch having the two opposing viewpoint flashbacks to his falling-out with Luke before we were able to get the true story. As BlueFlames noted, that entire confrontation with Snoke was set up as a retread of ROTJ's climactic confrontation, only to have it be subverted spectacularly. He sees the only way to move forward as quite literally killing his own past, and he's ready and willing to grab whatever power he can in the process. I'm really looking forward to seeing how everything plays out.
-Our boy Finn is getting lucky here. I saw some people giving Rose's character some flak, but it was refreshing to see this universe through the perspective of someone who didn't necessarily have great talent or import, and I though she played well with Finn. That final almost-sacrifice gave me a legitimate "they wouldn't..." pause.
-Andy Serkis continues to be utterly fantastic in every single mo-cap character he attempts. Snoke wound up being rather anti-climactic as an apparent big bad, but he was captivating while he was on-screen. (If only the same could be said about Phasma...)
-The hyperspace suicide jump...my God. That was brilliant cinematography, and even better sound design. Probably would have been better if the purple-haired general tried that before half the unarmed transports got obliterated, but what can you do. Speaking of, one thing that made me snicker a bit was the suggestion that they were "cloaked" somehow. Apparently the New Order never looked out the front windows.
-Loved the homage to ROTJ with the Falcon's flight through the crystal caverns, complete with the same music cues. Another great little moment was when the one random grunt comments on the ground being made of salt. "This isn't Hoth, we swear!"
-Yooooodaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!! Out of everything in this movie, that was by far the moment I was happiest about not being spoiled on. I had a big doofy grin on my face the entire time he was on-screen. Crazy senile ESB Yoda is the goddamn best.
If there is one general criticism I could level at the Disney era, it's that these new films seem to rely more on outside material than the original trilogy ever did. After two of these films I know very little about how circumstances led from the Empire's defeat after Endor to the current political situation, and even then I only found out by reading a general-interest background article a few weeks ago. Lord knows we don't need anything resembling the prequel trilogy's political bull****, but the tiniest bit of additional world-building would have served everything better. That aside, at the end of the day I was more than pleased with this. It was a solid step up from The Force Awakens, and two years is going to seem like an eternity.
(One other tiny quibble: poor Ackbar barely even got a mention when he went.
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