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I’ll try to keep this short.

The good:

• The storyline, although it had its issues (more on that later), at least wasn’t a retread of A New Hope like Episode VII was. Kudos to Rian for trying to do his own thing instead of endlessly remixing past films like DJ Abrams does.

• The world building was fantastic. Unlike TFA, where all the planets were just renamed versions of planets we’ve seen before (Jakku being a discount Tatooine, D’Qar being a discount Yavin 4, and Starkiller Base just being a bigger Death Star with some Hoth elements), Crait and Canto Bight are truly unique environments that haven’t gotten a Star Wars depiction yet. I especially like Canto Bight (which is basically the Star Wars version of Monaco or Macau), and seeing Star Wars’ take on a casino/legalized gambling. It was great to see new locations in Star Wars that haven’t been done yet, and the overall cinematography for these new worlds (plus other moments in the film) were stunning.

• Our three main characters actually have personalities and character arcs now! Poe’s was easily the best and most fleshed out of the three, learning how to not jump to conclusions and to think before he acts. Rei and Finns’ arcs were a bit abortive by contrast, but I’ll credit Rian for trying where DJ Abrams didn’t even make a half-hearted attempt.

• The new star fighter/vehicle designs were all excellent, especially Ren’s spaceship, which looked like a fusion between Darth Vader’s Tie Advanced X1 and Darth Maul’s Scimitar.

• Mark Hamill was dynamite as usual. He came across as the best of Yoda crossed with the best of Luke, and his humor was some of the only humorous moments in the film that felt like they fit.

The Bad:

• The rebels being essentially stuck in a slow motion chase for the entire film killed the pacing. I just wanted it to be over by the end.

• Star Wars is becoming increasingly Marvelized, and I don’t like it. Endless jokes that don’t seem to fit with Star Wars were everywhere, like Poe’s taunting of the admiral, and served only to completely kill any dramatic tension throughout the film.

An even bigger problem however, is that Disney doesn’t seem to know how to create threatening villains anymore. Marvel’s villains are absolute non-threats to their heroes for the most part, Frozen/Moana didn’t ultimately have villains that were well fleshed out, and now Star Wars’ First Order doesn’t seem like even a remote threat to the Rebels. They’re all just dispatched easily, and the constant jokes destroy any threat they have. The reason so many people are upset with Snoke’s death is because he was legitimately the last villain in the current trilogy that didn’t seem like a joke, and who seemed like he was a serious threat to our heroes, yet he was dispatched easily by Kylo Ren of all people. Is there any villain that commands respect in the First Order anymore? Phasma was dispatched by BB-8 of all characters, Ren’s a joke, and that admiral guy just gets dissed over and over by Poe. There’s no threat to the Rebels, and no threat means no excitement or tension throughout the film at all. This was already a major problem in TFA, but at least there was Snoke in the background to resemble SOME sort of threat to be taken seriously while Kylo was having another teenage hissy-fit.

• Plot holes everywhere. Why were Finn and Rose able to get out of the fleet without the Empire noticing? Why was Snoke able to perfectly manipulate and see into the minds of Rey and even Kylo initially, yet was totally fooled by Kylo into thinking Kylo was going to kill Rey? Why has BB-8 evolved from merely a cute droid into an almost Dio-esque powerhouse who can take out casino guards like a ninja, hijack AT-STs to kill everyone, etc.? The character movement throughout the universe (and the explanations for it) made it feel like the characters were teleporting around the universe with little to no consequence, and it showed.
• They really should’ve just killed off Leia and gotten it over with. The destruction of her ship’s cockpit was the perfect time to remove her from the series and pay tribute to her, but she instead Mary Poppins her way back inside? I know she has the force, but AFAIK, we’ve seen no other instance of her using such powerful techniques, so it felt VERY jarring.
• Yoda looked and felt weird. Nice to have him back, but the animation/puppet/whatever it was felt unnatural.

The Ugly (AKA the biggest reason why this film was a failure):

If news leaks out later that DJ Abrams, Rian, and/or Disney execs clashed over the creative direction of this film, it wouldn’t surprise me a bit; the film’s script constantly feels like it’s at war with itself. It feels like Rian was trying to make a truly interesting film that would be the most morally-gray Star Wars film yet, but every time the film feels like it’s about to go into an interesting direction, it gets yanked back into standard, Disney-approved clichés. For example:

• For half the film, Rey and Kylo are shown to have a force connection, and they use it to talk with one another. Its clear Rey is trying to convince Kylo to join her, and vice-versa. It felt like the film was leading up to Rey falling to the dark side, or Kylo joining Rey. Either would’ve been fine.

Instead, we get some super ham-fisted sequence where Kylo betrays Snoke, kills all his guards, and then…nothing ends up changing. Rey is still on the light side, Kylo’s still on the dark side, and they end up fighting anyway. What’s the point?

• Throughout the film, a theme of new beginnings was harped on over and over. Luke said the Jedi must be ended, and that there should be no light or dark side of the force. I was waiting throughout the film for a radical change to the status quo of the universe. Rey going evil, Kylo going good, the remainders of the Rebellion being utterly crushed, I was okay with any of it, and the film felt like it was setting up for the universe to change in a big, permanent way.

That change never came though. The Rebels are still inexplicably around (despite that they really should be destroyed this time), there are still Jedi/Sith, and everything is pretty much the same as it was before. The only difference is that it’s now clear you don’t have to be a Skywalker to be a Jedi; that’s a welcome change, but too small compared to what the film was implicitly promising.

• Throughout the film, there are visions of a more morally gray Star Wars universe. Benecio del Toro’s character shows that the Rebels buy arms from the weapons manufacturers, just like the Empire does; Leia’s replacement plans to keep sailing the fleet towards doom, to the point where I was trying to decide whether she was just incompetent or an Empire plant; Luke freaking tries to kill young Kylo Ren just because he’s afraid of what he could become. All these and more felt like they creating a deeper, more interesting Star Wars universe, where the Rebels had elements that were just as bad as the Empire, and leaders that didn’t have the best interests of their subordinates in mind. It all felt like it was leading to a point where the line between the good and bad guys would be more blurred. Poe’s mutiny was initially one of the best parts of the film for me, because it showed the Rebellion actually fighting amongst itself instead of being all happy together. I was ready for a full on Rebel vs. Rebel shoot-out. Rey and Luke dueled as well, and I was hoping that maybe Luke would go evil or try to destroy Rey and Kylo in some attempt to remove any vestiges of the Jedi/Sith.

I should’ve remembered that the suits up in Disney would never allow their precious film to take any risks. The Rebels buying their weapons from the same manufacturers as the Imperials is hand-waved away, Leia’s replacement is revealed to be good after all for no reason (with no good explanation as to why she just didn’t TELL Poe about the plan instead of keeping him in the dark), and Luke ends up being good and saying there should be more Jedi. The film gave me a taste of fillet mignon, only to pull it away after one or two bites and stuff a Big Mac down my gullet. All these moments and more felt like Rian being forced by higher-ups into doing the safe, Disney thing, and I loathed it.

(Don’t even get me into Finn’s aborted sacrifice, which to me is the biggest evidence that there was a writer fight behind the scenes).