Well I finally saw the movie, I'm sure its been discussed to death but still want to give my thoughts.
Might as well make this simple at least..
What I liked
- Kylo killing snoke and then teaming up with Ray to take out Snokes elite guards, such a great scene.
- Luke fucked up and Kylo Ren rising: Luke was never infallible in the original trilogy, he made mistakes and I can totally see him failing Ben Solo after seeing the true darkness within him and its even more compounded when you think about how Kylo kills Snoke, you think at the time that Ray was right and that hes conflicted and hes turning to the side of good but no, he takes out Snoke to take over and wants Ray to join him, it sets up that the conflict he felt all of this time wasn't about turning good it was about taking over and freeing himself of his enemies including his own master. Hell him not firing on his mother at the beginning of the movie could also be seen as being conflicted not over killing his mother but if taking out the leader of the resistance now will get him what he wants, I'd argue his entire Conflict over light and dark was gone after he killed Han in the last movie, now he wants to serve only himself and the conflict Snoke feels in him is more about how and when he should act, Snoke sees it as him being conflicted over the light and dark but thats not entirely the case I don't think. I could be just over thinking it though.
- Poe gets nerfed: Poe starts off this movie being an absolute badass which he kinda already was in the first movie so I liked how in his rush to take out the giant starship (I can't remember the name now) even when Leia tells him to retreat screws them over badly, he gets demoted and still ends up being an ass trying to circumvent the vice admiral who takes over and thinks he knows everything but they have a plan but they don't tell him that plan largely because hes spending so much of his time making an ass out of himself and rejecting everything they are trying to do because its not HIS way. This was needed to grow his character, I always thought the first movie makes him out to be this unstoppable badass and I was afraid this movie was going to do the same but instead the movie shows how hot headed he is and that gets a lot of people killed. It also shows growth towards the end when he starts using his head more and stops Fin from making the same mistakes he did (and at least tries to before that when Fin decides to try and sacrifice himself to take out the Battering Ram Cannon thing.
- Ray's growth as a character and her parents: Ray really becomes a three dimensional character here, we see her weakness of wanting to know her origins lead her towards the dark side, she foolishly believes the conflict within Kylo Ren will turn him to the side of good, we see her frustration with Luke not wanting to help her and the resistance and we don't see things really go her way throughout most of the story. Hell the revelation that shes just a nobody, no secret child of someone of much better importance shows how weak she truly is, you can somewhat see her wanting to accept Kylo's offer to join with him because the one thing she has always wanted was to be loved to matter to someone and Kylo offers to fill that void in her heart but she rejects it because that is the right thing to do, she won't sink into the darkness and reject all that she has grown to care for just to make herself happy, no she wants to carve her own path and find a real purpose with her life and her powers which she clearly finds in the Resistance.
- Luke Vs. Kyo Ren: Damn this was badass, you wonder first how all that giant blaster fire didn't kill Luke and he just toys with Kylo showing the First Order just how foolish their new 'supreme leader' actually is. The reveal that it was all just an astral projection was great, and make Luke seem so badass, he lets Kylo think that hes there just to fight him when in fact the entire thing is a ploy to help Leia and the others escape its only when he drops his guard and seems to be pulling an Obi-wan that it gets revealed. I wasn't a fan of Luke dying because of it but I do get it at the very least and that was such a badass way for him to go out and without trying to do some generic 'heroic sacrifice' or something. You can see the wheels turning in Huxley's head on how hes going to try and knock Kylo off at some point after that, Kylo alone screwed them over because he was stupid enough to fall right into Lukes hands and the entire army witnessed it.
- The Struggle between the Rebels and the First Order: This was a really interesting setup, right from the start we see that the Rebels are clearly outmatched in many ways but some great strategic ideas (Light Speed into a space ship, yep that did what I always thought it might do and it was BADASS!) really level the playing field, the Rebellion is nearly wiped out but because of Kylo and the First Orders mistakes they manage to get away, between them fucking up and seeing Poe and the Rebels fuck up this felt like a real conflict with both sides making choices that seem smart but backfire, its very human and understandable but at the same time making both sides that much more desperate. It was the first time in this entire series where I wasn't even sure which side would really have the upper hand at the end of the movie, you think its the First Order when they have them on the wrong for a majority of the movie but then they screw up several times and take some major losses resulting in them losing the chance of finishing off the Rebels for good. It was a great way to show the two sides in conflict without relying on stupid ass super weapons the whole time.
What I didn't like
- The Fin and Rose subplot: I didn't hate this but it just felt kinda pointless in a movie I thought was kinda long, the whole thing seemed to give Fin a love interest in Rose and also to give Fin a minor character arc and a fun fight between him and Phasma. Rose herself was alright, I did like how she saved Fin in the end and her backstory with the sister her sacrifices herself near the beginning of the movie but this was clearly the weakest part of the movie and when the whole thing turns out to not even work out as they intended it seemed like a worthless venture and could have done something else for the main events to all take place.
- Poe and Ray: So they finally meet and I couldn't help just instantly think that these two are being setup to be an item and I really don't like that, I kinda like Ray alone at this point and hope they don't decide to make them a couple in the next movie. I also think they are both too hot headed to ever make it work.
- Very little of certain characters: Chewy could have had more to do, I wanted to see him interact with Luke more but theres one little short scene and thats it. Leia is also surprisingly not in this movie very much, also really surprised they didn't just kill her off when she gets blasted into space, what are they going to possibly do with her character in the next movie with Carrie Fisher having past? Phasma also once again felt wasted, its such a waste of a cool design and a great actor.
- A Bit of over the top force powers: Leia surviving the vacuum of space was kinda crazy, I didn't hate it but it made the force feel much more powerful then ever before, Luke doing what he did at least made sense (I mean it cost him his life after all) but in general I thought a thing like the force which was mostly downplayed in the original trilogy felt extremely crazy at times and from characters that shouldn't be able to do such crazy things. I guess this might be more mixed but yeah I thought it was a bit much at times.
- Snoke: Okay I actually liked the twist with Snoke being killed off so suddenly (when he said Kylo 'enemy' I realized what was about to happen) but yeah just goes out without any explanation or fanfare or anything, it would have been one thing if we at least knew where he came from and why he was so powerful to begin with but nothing even remotely close to that, only purpose he really serves here is to show just how far Kylo has fallen into the darkness. Still was a great twist but even if they said he was Darth Plaugous or something I would've been fine with it.
- Poe's trolling Huxley at the beginning: Scene itself was funny but it felt very modern and not something that would hold up over time. Not a big thing but it did stick with me in my mind.
Overall: I loved the movie, really liked that they did try to do something new with it. After I and many others were disappointed with The Force Awakenings for playing things way to safe (was still a good movie) I'm really glad that they really did take some risks and tried to do something different, I don't think everything worked out perfectly well but this movie was outstanding and I don't really get why anyone hates it.
