The Evil Empire Strikes Out

Rating: 7/10 (17 December 2015)

No specifics on spoilers here, just the bad and the good that I see. Bad: For two new bad guys, they could have picked someone without a beak-nose for the son of... and doesn't look anything like what their kid should, and how about a deeper voice for the base commander if he is to shout and not sound like an angry kid. A new bad guy gets beat up by a girl with no training? what the...!? (maybe if they had -him- showing some form on influence on the fight) A bit part with no explanation for big time actor Von's role. A barter townish place, ultra limited exposure for it. Why is there always a fat man-thing behind the counter of these places? The new tall speaking thing reminds me of a cross between Prometheus and Kingdom of the crystal skulls... no imagination. Not enough bar scene. Not a single word spoken by ... Uniforms lacking newness, same old with a few new bits. With no new remarkable star ships in the flick, they only went bigger with what we all expected. What could they think of next that's past a planetary scale ship? How about bringing in some old Dune stuff and have folding space travel?
Good/cool: Hungry Pets come out to play! That's a new and wondrous way of using 'solar power' to put it bluntly but impossibly believable. Some predictable moments, but several i didn't see that coming types. A multitude of new creatures of the cosmos! SFX are up there, 3D ships that are in your face! (side seats are best) New force abilities! The old blaster-xbow rocks a new mean sfx punch! That's a really REALLY big gun...
The story line is the bad guys are trying to find someone and stopping anything that prevents that. Unimaginative.
I rate it a 7, with the other 6 movies coming in an avg of 8. Disney has fast patched together a new movie destroying the image of what was brilliance. With the Evil Empire now in control of it I cannot expect better in the future. All the $ they are getting is due to Lucas' legacy. Disney ruined it for me, imo. Cheaply Budgeted.
I would have ended this movie cliffhanger style, with Lukes part showing him making some sort of Jedi move... from across the Galaxy... showing the REAL Power of the Force.