Generally pretty awful, but with one or two good points

Rating: 3/10 (19 December 2017)

THE GOOD
1. It's nice to see a few plot twists in a Star Wars movie. Usually Star Wars movies are very linear, with few shades of grey.
2. Until his ludicrously early and pathetic death, I absolutely loved Snoke in this film. I thought he was becoming an excellent dark and evil character, and was extremely well rendered.
3. For the most part, Kylo Ren's character development from a petulant child in TFA to a potentially very dangerous man was handled very well here.
4. John Williams score was excellent. Obviously, that's as obvious as saying 'grass is green', but it's still worth noting as the score is often overlooked.
5. Visually the movie looks great.
6. I still get goosebumps when the Star Wars logo and opening 'crawl' come on the screen in a cinema.
7. Errrr.....that's about it.
THE BAD
1. The Leia 'Mary Poppins/Neo/Superman' Organa scene. This could quite possibly be the WORST scene ever in a Star Wars moview. It went from being a poignant and suitably heroic end for Leia (and by extension for the late, great Carrie Fisher) to a stupid, pathetic, and frankly laughable Mary Poppins-esque space-flying joke. That one scene threw me out of the movie more than anything else. People in the cinema actually laughed... they LAUGHED at the stupidity of it. Why, oh why, didn't Mr Johnson and Disney use this scene as the perfect way to end Leia's story arc? As it is, we now have the spectre of her being written out off-screen as Disney have already confirmed Leia will not be appearing in Episode IX in any way.
2. Way, way, WAY too much slap-stick humour. If it's not Poe making prank calls and making 'your mother' jokes to Hux (within minutes of the film starting), or Finn falling off a table with water spouting out of his recovery suit.... it's all way too much. The only bits of humour that even vaguely worked for me was the scene with Chewie eating a roast Porg in front of a living one, and the 'caretakers' on Luke's island. The rest was just childish slapstick that felt forced and flat.
3. General Hux, who I thought was a boarder-line parody in TFA, takes the final step and becomes a total pantomime villain here. It's a wonder Domhnall Gleeson could get a single word out of his mouth with his tongue so firmly in his cheek. All believability for his character is now totally out of the window.
4. The slow-mo spaceship chase was totally out of keeping with everything we've ever seen in the Star Wars universe to date, and so easily solved if the First Order just 'hyperspaced' a few ships in front of the fleeing Resistance. Sloppy writing in an attempt to shoehorn in some tension.
5. The whole 'finding the codebreaker/casino-world' scene was totally unnecessary, childish in execution, and riddled with pathetic coincidences. Also, why was Maz the first person the Resistance thought of to contact for a codebreaker? How does Poe even know her? How did they find her? Why would she know anything? Again, sloppy writing to bring in a character from TFA.
6. Snoke kicking the bucket in the most pathetic manner was another "throw me out of the movie" moment. Here's a guy who was set up as one of the most powerful force-users ever in TFA and I felt he was turning into a great character.....and then suddenly he gets 'sabered in half without even noticing the lightsaber turning towards him. OK then. Now, some may say he was just another piece of misdirection, but frankly it seems to me that Rian Johnson just didn't like the character that Abrams created so decided to bin him off.
7. Luke's COMPLETE change of personality from the OT to here. Mark Hamill has gone on record saying that he fundamentally and completely disagreed with the entire direction that Johnson took his character....and I have to say, I completely agree with him. The Luke we see here has turned his back on all he stood for in ANH, ESB and RTJ, even to the point of almost killing his young nephew IN HIS SLEEP, despite in the OT risking his life for his friends and to 'save' Vader! It's almost like Johnson was just trying to be different to the OT at every possible turn, which is fine if it's done well and makes sense : but considerably less fine if he fundamentally changes key character's personalities. Guess which way that one went?
8. The end 'non-fight' between Ren and Luke was a total anticlimax. As with Leia's non-death in space, the scene went from a feeling of "we're going to see Luke in action again!" to "oh....OK, so it was a force hologram. That ended up killing him anyway". And I'm sorry, but "Force Holograms"? Really? How did Ren not realise it was a projection considering he's force-adept? And why if it was going to kill him anyway, did Luke even bother doing the whole force hologram thing? Surely he'd have been better off rocking up in person to face Ren : at least then he'd have had a fighting chance, and potentially gone out in style! As it is he just gives up on his island and dies alone from exhaustion. Hmmmm, yes, what a great end for one of the OT's key characters. Then again, Han's end in TFA was pretty ignominious too.
9. Captain Phasma once again proves to be totally overhyped and pointless. Why bother with her at all?
10. The frankly weird Harry-Potter-style 'multi-mirror' scene with Ren on Luke's island. What...was...that...about? Obviously it was meant to be a rehash of Luke's cave-scene in ESB, but here it just comes off as odd and having no place in a Star Wars movie.
11. As with TFA, there is just zero 'respect' for the OT characters here. Sure it's not the 70's and 80's anymore and things change, but the OT characters and story lines are what the Star War's universe is built upon, and as a result I feel they deserve more respect that Johnson (and Abrams for that matter) and Disney seem to be giving them. An unarmed Han being stabbed by Ren in TFA, Luke just giving up on his lonely island in TLJ, and the prospect of Leia being written out off-screen. Great...
Ultimately this film (and TFA to a certain extent), while not being absolutely terrible in isolation, just don't feel part of the Star Wars universe. And ultimately that's a real shame as these new movies should've respectfully added to the OT in much the same way as the truly excellent Rogue One has. As it is, TLJ effectively makes a mockery of all the story arcs that have gone before....and that is a real pity.