Ignore the Idiots

Rating: 8/10 (21 December 2019)

Ignore the questionable intelligence who rate this movie poor. They have clearly forgotten the essence of the original movies, and what Star Wars is all about.
Clearly it's fashionable nowadays to slate something clearly remarkable in order to look different and 'cool'.
We've all seen where taking the essence of something and trying to change it dramatically (TLJ) ends up. A true disaster, and the Director can't even admit it (Rian, take a note out of Joel Schumacher's book where he apologised for Batman and Robin).
Back to TROS. This is a true homage to the essence of Star Wars, and a wonderful tipping of the hat to the original trilogy. Unfortunately Abrams had the responsibility of trying to make up for the mess that Rian Johnson left, which is clear in the movie, but Abrams handles this well, despite the movie feeling very slightly convoluted in small parts.
Overall however, it is a wonderful thrill ride, with reasonable character depth throughout, the right balance of action,
some pleasantly surprising easter eggs, and a 'lump in the throat' end to the Skywalker saga.
Star Wars is a simple formula that doesn't need to be adapted for the modern day snowflake that desperately needs to have 100% equality. Well done J.J.!