Its time for the movie reviews.....to end.

Rating: 7/10 (17 December 2017)

Overall I enjoyed the movie, but I did have a few gripes. For starters, some scenes were too silly. For example in the beginning theres a scene witth Hux and Poe that felt like something an SNL sketch would do. It felt a bit out of place for this universe. Also, a lot of the casino scenes (and characters) reminded me of the prequels. And by that I mean it was kind of kiddish. Like, you remember how silly Jar Jar was.....kind of like that. The porgs. Yes, they are cute. But they literally serve no purpose except to sell toys. I could be okay with them being created to sell merch if they at least did something in the movie. They honestly do not add anything and the runtime could have been shortened if they just cut them out. There was also a dumb scene with Leia where she basically became Starlord for a moment. It probably would have been better if she had just died in that moment or if she got injured in some other way. The scene felt kind of silly to me. Those were my major gripes. I still have a couple minor ones like R2 still not having much of a presence in this movie but it didn't bother me as much as the ones listed.
So what did I like? Well for me Adam Driver as Kylo Ren was probably my favourite thing. He brings so much vulnerability to that character. I don't think he was ever supposed to be "the big, bad evil". Its clear to me that he was a kid who felt abandoned by his parents, and then was seduced by Snoke (who probably both mentally and physically abused him) and then the last person he trusts turns on him. And yet, there are still moments in the film where he's conflicted. Some shown in the trailer (like the scene where he's in the TIE Fighter about to blast his mother) and others not. Like for instance (and this especially spoiler-y) where you can see the pain on his face when he finds out that Snoke has been manipulating him (and Rey) through the force talks they had. And I could see some guilt on his face when Rey is being tortured by Snoke. And I think Adam portrayed that wonderfully. (Plus, as a bonus you do get a shirtless scene). I also thought Daisy did a good job. And they have another cool scene together when they're both trying to force grab the lightsaber. And I also loved seeing Luke being a badass again. Another favourite moment was when he lightly dusted off his cape and gave Kylo a look that said "That's all you got?"
For those that thought Force Awakens was a re-hash of "A New Hope", will likely also think this as a re-hash of "The Empire Strikes Back". There are similarities. Benicio's character seemed to be Lando in this story. And also having the antagonist (Kylo) ask the protagonist (Rey) to rule alongside him in the galaxy.
As I said before, I did enjoy myself. There were some great action scenes, some funny scenes and as well as some great emotional scenes. Of course, some great production design, good tech etc. Where would I rank it? Well, I do like the original trilogy as well as The Force Awakens more. I rated the film a 7, but I think it would be more like a 7.5.