A disaster

Rating: 2/10 (1 January 2018)

I made this account purely so that I could rant about how frustrated I am about the film. Having been excited about it for the past year and a bit and after trying my best to avoid all spoilers, I left the cinema feeling nothing less than devastated at the direction Star Wars is being taken. I saw the film 2 additional times just to be sure and with each time I left feeling more disgusted than the last. Lets take a brief look at my major disagreements without even considering Luke and his *new* character.

A Mary Sue protagonist who, with 2 days of 'Jedi training' is able to defeat the First Order's most powerful soldiers and is able to match that of Kylo Ren, a descendant of Anakin who was trained by both Jedi and Sith. This throws everything from the past movies and EU out of the window; you no longer need years of extensive training to be able to accurately wield and control the force nor do you need any training with a lightsaber to be able to use one.

Rose (ugh) and Finn go off to some casino planet to find a master code breaker. Even if you ignore the political undertones, they get thrown in jail for a PARKING violation and they just so happen to find exactly who they're looking for in their cell. This turns out to be a completely unnecessary exercise for two reasons; they get captured anyway AND had purple hair lady merely told everybody her plan, going to the lead Star Destroyer would have evidently been pointless.

'The' Leia scene was indescribably horrible.

Opening scenes with the Dreadnaught; most of the incredibly slow and large bombers are wiped out immediately for obvious reasons. Cliche plot armour is placed on the remaining bomber who, after somehow surviving tie fighters who for some reason didn't shoot them down, is able to destroy one of the First Order's most dangerous and large ships with one payload.

Vice Admiral Purple Hair (her character was so disconnected with me as a viewer that I just don't care to even look her name up) has a plan but for the entire movie refuses to tell anybody about it whilst their support ships one by one are destroyed for more or less no reason. This carries on for so long that a mutiny occurs.

Admiral Akbar, a fan favourite, is merely thrown in the trash. Why not have him become commander and send him off in a memorable way?

Snoke, who had been established as this incredibly powerful, almost godlike, force user who despite being able to use the force merely via hologram died because his puerperal vision was't quite wide enough. He was also given no back story as to who he was, where he came from OR his objectives.

The First Order is this incredibly powerful government who 'reigns' over the galaxy. Despite this, they only have about 3 ships to go after the remaining resistance forces who, once destroyed, would allow them to rule unopposed. In any case, they merely follow them in a slower ship shooting at them over the course of 18 or so hours rather than cutting them off with another ship or signaling for reinforcements.

After Rose saves Finn, Rose is somehow dragged back into the Rebel base across what is likely to be many kilometers of open ground. They somehow do this despite being in clear sight of the AT-M6s and AT-ATs.

Forced humour that not only fails to connect but takes the audience out of an otherwise tense scene.

The only thing stopping this from being a 1 is the visual effects and a degree of empathy for the actors. Kudos to you for doing your best with what you were given. I fear the Johnson's trilogy where everybody can use the force and control it with no training at all. Absolutely disappointing.