I almost liked this movie

Rating: 4/10 (3 January 2020)

Here are the things I enjoyed about this movie:
-Music
-Plot was decent and satisfactory
-Some funny moments with droids
-All main characters had good moments
-The desert scene in the beginning with Kylo Ren looking for Rey
-The kiss scene
-Adam Driver's performance in general
Here are the things I thought didn't work as well:
-Dialogue writing was atrocious. It felt like the characters were reading off a Wikipedia summary of the plot instead of having actual conversations
-Pacing was WAY too fast. You hardly had time to register that a moment was happening and then something else was already happening.
-Much of the art/set design felt overly dark, depressing, unimaginative, and boring. Unimaginative also applies to the way many plot moments were shot/set up. Because of these 3 issues (dialogue, pacing, and design), a lot of moments went by that mentally checked as something that could've been interesting, and yet held almost no emotional weight because they were just hurried past in a perfunctory manner.
-Speaking of which, was an absolute crime to kill off Hux in such a quick, perfunctory manner. That character was incredible in the previous movie (although not in TFA - perhaps JJ Abrams just doesn't know what to do with him).
-It also felt like everything was over-escalated to the point of being ridiculous. Palpatine ...ridiculous. He could've actually been ok if treated in the right way. But as it is everything that had to do with him felt like child's Lego version of how Star Wars should be. Like, a not good one.
-2nd half lacked enough of Adam Driver's character
My main takeaway....? While it absolutely fails to be enjoyable on its own right, this movie doesn't ruin the previous two because its actual story is a satisfactory conclusion to the narrative. So at least I can go back and watch those two without feeling annoyed. In particular, its failures really shone a light on a lot of things The Last Jedi did superbly well, making TLJ much more enjoyable in hindsight. That's the best I can say for it.