A disrespectful nostalgia exploit

Rating: 4/10 (27 December 2019)

I did not grow up with Star Wars, I am only 17 years old. Despite this, this movie still strikes me as a massive nostalgia exploit designed to take money from fans. This movie not only has no stakes, it removes the stakes from older movies. What I mean by this is that this movie has no respect for the events that transpired in the original films. On top of that, every single 'death' in this movie is copped out of in a cheap manner. They could have given some characters some very fulfilling endings that would leave me and all other fans satisfied. Instead, they chose to give us cheap, half-baked endings to some characters and copped out of others. Also, random stuff that has no back story is just thrown into this movie whenever it is seen fit. Rey just can all of a sudden heal people using the force??? Since when? I guess since now since it's convenient for the directors. The Emperor just uses life-steal??? okay? Just cheap, thoughtless writing led to a disappointing plot.
Speaking of the writing. God it sounded like it was written by a three year-old at times. So much awkward writing that left me cringing and trying to force what I just heard out of my mind. I truly feel terrible for the actor that plays Finn. Such true talent wasted on such mindless lines. They should have just had an auto-generated voice do Finn, at least then the acting would match the emotionless writing.
Finally, the positives. This movie, like the two prior, had beautiful visuals. Every environment was full of color, life and beauty. This movie was a true treat to look at, and that was the saving grace of it. Whenever I couldn't stand the actual plot, I could always count on a beautiful backdrop to help ease the pain. Also, the acting was pretty damn good, and the actors did their best to help compensate for a script that lacked any sort of semblance to the mature, or at least amicable, ways of Star Wars movies past.
If you are a fan of episodes 4-6, and can tolerate episodes 1-3, I wouldn't recommend this movie. It will ruin your memory of the first movies, and will take away from the beautiful ending it gave you. However, if you didn't grow up with star wars, and simply like the cool CGI and epic battles, this movie will do the job for you.