I'd rather watch The Star Wars Holiday Special

Rating: 1/10 (5 September 2017)

The basic structure of the plot is too similar to A New Hope and far too much time is wasted on fan service. Unfortunately they have made too many unsatisfactory alterations for this film to work as a worthwhile remake.
For understandable reasons the film's main protagonist this time is a Disney Princess. This particular alteration could be seen as a clever ploy by the film's creators as it helps to both distract the audience from the obvious parallels with A New Hope while also predisposing liberal critics to give it the benefit of the doubt. Some of the apologists for the film do like to accuse its critics of misogyny. In a similar fashion the presence of the actor who plays Fin and the other ethnic minorities within the film might have also led to a better critical reception than was otherwise deserved.
The problem that I have with the Rey character is that she appears to have finished the Hero's Journey before the start of the film. I'm afraid that anyone that tries to insist that Luke was handled the same way by Lucas and co have either not watched the original films or were not paying attention. Luke was initially portrayed as a bumbling ignoramus who was constantly overshadowed by everyone else and particularly by Han. The original three protagonists complemented each other nicely both in their abilities and their relative importance. Rey by contrast not only far overshadows Fin and Poe but is in danger of eclipsing the abilities and achievements of everyone else from the Star Wars Universe.
In my opinion the behaviour and temperament of Fin after his sudden crisis of conscience did not make any sense whatsoever. After spending his whole life indoctrinated by the First Order he is instantly transformed into a comedy sidekick for the lead protagonist. And I would probably find the treatment of his character even more problematic if I was black myself.
Poe's ability as a pilot is repeatedly emphasized but for some strange reason rather than allow the obvious option of having him pilot the Falcon as the protagonists escape, the script deems it convenient to have him disappear in order to further embellish the amazing incredibility of Rey. If Rey was a man would the filmmakers have felt the same need to repeatedly hammer home the character's awesomeness?
The relationship between the three main factions was unnecessarily confusing. Maybe I am being cynical but I got the impression that the third faction was only included so that it could be wiped out by the preposterous Starkiller Base. However, for all the impact that the deaths of billions had on the protagonists or indeed the watching audience they might as well have been swatting flies.
Luke's behaviour is seemingly inconsistent with the character that was developed within the previous films and Han looks to be too old to be displaying the symptoms of a midlife crisis by gallivanting around the universe as if he was forty years younger.
In order to continue milking this franchise the achievements of the original three protagonists have been destroyed while some of their actions since The Return of the Jedi do not appear to be consistent with what we had learned about them by the end of that film. The fundamental nature of the Force has also had to change to suit the contemporary demand for instant gratification. Why bother indicating that your protagonists are gradually learning new abilities when they can just shut their eyes and master them in an instant? It seems that there was no need for all those Jedi Academies after all.