The Dead speak!

Rating: 5/10 (20 December 2019)

The dead being the Star wars sequels!
I really wanted this film to work. This felt like a Michael Bay film, great if you want to switch your brain off and go along for the ride. But Star wars was never about switching your brain off!
First the good: Amazing special effects. The whole of the Second act was great, it felt like a Star Wars film, it was fun, had good plot and pacing. You felt like you were in the Star Wars Universe. Lando was great and the redemption of Ren (and Han) was moving and beautiful. Carrie Fisher looked good, but only spoke in one liners (she might have worked better in this film as a force ghost!).
Now the Bad: There were no recognizable Aliens from any other Star Wars films or shows. Apart from the Characters from the previous sequels it may as well not been called Star Wars. The first act had no joy, it felt like they were trying to set up an entirely new Story; Resurrecting the Emperor is okay, but where did he get the power to conjure up a fleet of Star destroyers? Why didn't he do that in episode 2-3? A lot of elements, like Reys training or the Knights of Ren, seemed shoe-horned in to answer questions they forgot to in previous episodes. The Third act felt like it was trying to be Avengers:End game. Stuff blowing up everywhere. The camera kept shaking during action scenes, which I guess was supposed to make you feel more involved, but apart from the Battle scene at the end of episode 2 Star wars has always had beautiful action that looked like Ralph Mcquarie art works.This just felt messy. Po and Finn and all other characters seemed a bit superfluous in the final Battle, Everyone was expendable. There was a beautiful moment with Rey and Ren but it ended a bit weird, almost like the "i saved you, no I saved you" moment in The Last Jedi. Finally, what's with JJ blowing up planets? You don't have to blow up a planet to be a bad guy. Only episode 4 had a planet being blown up, but JJ has blown up several. What would be the purpose of blowing up planets, surely a better use of resources would be to kill the people but save the planet for use by the first order? I guess that's not as quick and there's not as many explosions.
This film was overly dark and lacking in fun. I really wanted to show my daughter this to have a good female role model, but it's too dark and violent. (other star wars movies make the violence a bit sci-fi, this was a bit raw. Shooting General Hux in the leg and then in the chest! He could have at least fought back, he was a good character!
Disney really didn't listen to fans, only fixing some small plot holes while major damage was don'e to the Star Wars Franchise. I wish I could un-see parts of this movie, I don't know if even a fan edit can save this one!