Contrived Star Wars

Rating: 6/10 (2 January 2020)

The big problem with the new trilogy is that there was no story to tell. At least with the much maligned prequels, there was a tale that - it could be argued - needed telling.
The biggest disappointment with these new films is the 2 dimensional characters. Even the return of the emperor is a let down. I remember as a child first witnessing Palpatine in TESB and having a shiver down my spine. In this latest installment, Darth Sidious is reduced to a - at best - scooby do baddie. At one point during the end I even expected his to announce that he would got away with it if it wasn't for those pesky kids, while Rey pulls off his face mask to reveal that all along, Palpatine was only old man Johnson, the caretaker of the death star.
The big opportunity lost here was to really develop Kylo Ren - the whole focus should have been more on a character that may have had a chance to be fully developed.
Having said all that, my 6 year old son loved it and surely this is always been the target audience for star wars through the generations and not really for older people like me trying to grapple hold of a long lost childhood dream of swinging a lightsaber with ernest