Lots to look at

Rating: 7/10 (19 February 2020)

I realized long ago that I've grown out of any deep investment in Star Wars as a franchise, so I just approach these movies as mindless entertainment, and as such have genuinely enjoyed these latest movies.
Even though I don't expect much from the plot, I actually thought TLJ made some really interesting choices. So now you have a sense of where I'm coming from.
This movie looks really, really cool. Lucas apparently funneled the entire budget for a New Hope into the effects, and here it's easy to imagine that the lion's share of time & energy went into designing the look of the worlds. And man, they hit it out of the park.
Did they sacrifice plausibility for superficial cool factor? You betcha they did, and I didn't really care, it's a space movie, not a documentary. The set pieces and some of the sequences are really beautiful and, honestly, put to better use than those in Avatar.
It's flashy, loud, brash, occasionally stupid, but a real treat for the eyes. So if you don't mind shelling out $15 to see what is essentially the fever dream of a moody but really talented set design student, this is for you.
If you're at all invested in the lore of Star Wars, you're likely to be disappointed. There are fun little nods here and there, but like people are saying, they're not super well done. But I'd absolutely watch this again just to see some of those designs.