Could have been great

Rating: 6/10 (2 January 2017)

This had the potential to be a great star wars movie. It had it's own voice and story (unlike force awakens), and the story could slot into the original trilogy perfectly. The move makers nailed the star wars look, it had all the vehicles, all the robots, the aliens etc. It looked fantastic.
And yet I couldn't help but look at my watch towards the end. It dragged through the middle and there was very little light to balance all the dark moments.#spoilers - every single main character dies! Every single one.. half of them were never really developed so you don't really care, but still. There's a few token 'rousing speeches'about hope and fighting against the odds for a cause, but there's nothing hopeful or joyful at all throughout the movie. I appreciate you need conflict in a story, you need danger to raise the stakes. But there's also a lot to be said for "they all lived happily ever after", or "some of them lived happily ever after" or even "the ewoks had a BBQ at the end".
Basically, star wars to me has always been about escapist fun. Simple stories, good guys defeat the bad guys with cool aliens and robots sprinkled throughout. I don't need to see the agony of war or saving private Ryan sci-fi edition. It was just a bit too much for me. I didn't hate it, but I'm not in any hurry to see it again.