Who cares?!?!

Rating: 2/10 (24 December 2017)

How may ways is TLJ awful? Let's count the ways:
For starters, it has three subplots (Rey's training under Skywalker, Finn's attempt to find a codebreaker, and Poe's attempt to save the Rebel fleet). With three sub plots going on at once, it's hard to follow and remain emotionally engaged. By the time you come back to Poe's training, for example, so much has already happened you don't even know if it matters. I took a bathroom break and felt like it was easier to follow the action when I returned.
Next, no original technology. It's all just stuff from the first two trilogies. The Phantom menace had some interesting toys (such as pod racers) and the Empire Strikes back a fantastic action sequence (a free falling Millennium Falcon navigating an asteroid field) and turtle Walker that was unrealistic as hell, but cool, but in this derivative junk, nothing to get excited about.
Truth be told, Carrie Fisher was never the strongest character in the original trilogy who usually spent her time complaining that she wasn't being treated like a princess enough or waiting to be rescued. Making her the star general getting nearly everyone killed by being so a willy nilly didn't make her especially fun to watch. It's like driving on the freeway with your grandmother. Oh, wait, TWO grandmothers!
Rey as a Mary Sue is sometimes likable about about as interesting as Luke Skywalker in the original trilogy. Consider Darth Vader in the original trilogy: He had a dark sense of humor (pardon the pun) while Kylo seems to just need a diaper change. The bad guy First Order types are just nasty, angry jerks while in the original empire, they were cool and collected while going about their evil duties.
This film reminds me a lot like Battlefield Earth but at least Battlefield Earth had action. It didn't stay stale for too long and the bad acting and writing actually was kind of funny. When bad acting and writing isn't funny, or compelling, you just get something like the drivers ed videos you sat through in high school. (At least those were educational.)
Finally, with the rebellion being so ineffective or even much more likable than the First Order it begs the question: Who cares? Who cares if the rebellion just gets blown up? Apparently, the rest of the galaxy doesn't seem to care and neither did I until these 3 tired stories wound their won their way out much like the popcorn out of my colon.