Not a good story, not good science fiction

Rating: 2/10 (29 December 2019)

Okay, let's review the evidence you have after you see a good movie.
1) You know every character by name. You can relate to at least one of the characters.
2) You can remember some real cool dialog, whether it is funny or dramatic or meaningful.
3) You suspend your disbelief. This is especially important for science fiction. Although sci-fi is fantasy it should at least put boundaries on its physics so that even though characters have super human abilities there are still "reasonable" limits on them. If only a 4 year old can suspend their disbelief for 2 hours then something is wrong.
4) Some sort of classic story telling pattern is used. There is a well defined conflict along with information that tells you the context of what is happening. You should know how each character gives meaning to the story. The story should have some build up toward a climax and then a meaningful conclusion.
5) You feel that the use of emotion in the movie fits the story. In other words, the music isn't super dramatic for someone brushing their teeth. The music and the story fit together, and you do not feel like you are being manipulated to feel things that the story does not deserve to invoke.
6) The movie is well paced. It does not jump from scene to scene like some crazy video game, and it is also not too slow. There is action where is make sense and quiet moments where thought and planning happen. Why is the necessary? Because this is how real life is, and in order for a movie to feel real the pacing has to be realistic. Furthermore, too fast of pacing is even worse then too slow because it puts the viewer to sleep with a barrage of information that causes the viewer to shut down mentally.
7) The movie can stand on its own. If this was the only movie that a viewer has seen from this story line then it should still be good. The movie shouldn't be trying to pull all its meaning from previous episodes. This would violate the formula of good story telling.
8) The movie has original content, thoughts, ideas. Sometimes cleverness alone warrants making a movie. Everyone wants something fresh, even if it's an extrapolation of previous ideas.
This episode of Star Wars failed all of these criteria.