Honest Review

Rating: 2/10 (19 December 2017)

(2 screenings)
+ Great visuals
+ Some characters showing better acting
+ Some awesome space battles (as expected)

New character choices are painfully convenient

Overload of humour. The exchange at the beginning from Poe is really painful and only made the kids in the cinema laugh.

Very poor timelines as to Rey's Jedi training. Three lessons from Luke and she is battling Kylo 1v1 and pretty much wins? Even Luke had training from Obi-Wan and Yoda over two movies before being close to taking on another Jedi.

Absolute disgraceful treatment of signature characters.

Admiral Ackbar: Senior leadership from the Rebellion and Resistance and has absolutely little or not interaction with the fleet coordination and battle plans? What? He should at least have been given a send-off via the suicide warp jump.
Luke: I am really struggling to understand why we went from an intense action-scene, to him being "at peace" from facing Kylo. Just not at all sure who is supposed to be leading the Rebellion now?
Leia: Given her death, the moment when the bridge is blown out would have been a fitting end to her involvement in the series....yet when everyone is pin-drop silent in the cinema with reflection from that moment...that ridiculous superman scene occurs. Completely wrong, leading to her inevitably being written-out with some poor excuse from characters, or having to go through CGI overlays. Not a good position Rian.
Snoke: Who? Whilst I really had hoped it wouldn't repeat Return of the Jedi, his death made no sense in the situation. The only reason I can fathom is that some decisions were made to restart the franchise for further movies and thus they needed to reset the entire galaxy again.
Summary: My second viewing was much better as I was able to ignore the parts that were painful and just enjoy the scenes that were good. Whilst a lot of other reviews did not like the interactions between Rey and Kylo (via the Force link), I thought both characters developed well. Adam Driver seems to have settled into his role now he got rid of the helmet and I found him to be much more convincing.
There is but one positive from this current position, with the Resistance all but destroyed, it will open up the Franchise for more movies. In ten years time we may reflect back and be joyful in the position that Star Wars may be in, but at the moment it is dangling on a string.
Have tried to keep this honest. I am a fan, and I gave the movie a second change. Ultimately, Disney was going to take the franchise in a different direction for a more modern/young audience. It is just a real shame that this movie was the one to instigate that split before another great saga was completed with Ep 9. Rogue one, it seems, is a rose amongst the thorns.