Lazy writing

Rating: 1/10 (4 August 2018)

As a gatekeeper of a franchise that spawns decades you have a big responsibility to keep a 'rule book' of what is allowed to happen to keep stories believable. I can be convinced of a time travelling DeLorean after 30 seconds screen-time, as long as there are certain limitations the characters have to deal with, weaknesses or rules that cannot be broken, whether they are explicitly mentioned in the film or not.
If these rules suddenly shift or are thrown out of the window, it ruins the believability and disrespects its viewers. This is why the Matrix 2 and 3 for example were absolutely atrocious sequels to an excellent original.
Having rules that limit what can or should happen forces writers to think of smart ways to propel the story forward, avoid 'cop outs' and as a result keep people invested in all the characters and the world(s) they inhabit.
So, having princess Leia's ship getting shot and have her thrown out of the ship through fire, explosions and millions of pieces of glass debris into the cold dark void, a vacuum killing any human within a minute, and then have her Force powers fly her back to the ship like friggin' Mary Poppins is not what I find acceptable. Having her die instantly would have been so much better and frankly would have been a much more respectful tribute to her legacy as an actress. It would have been a bold move, but taken her character seriously and tell viewers the stakes are truly high. What happened in the movie was absolutely horrible. An intern could have written a better scene.
Similarly, having the bad guys ship destroyed by flying through it at light speed is cool and all, but then having a crazy battle at the gigantic ship launch pad with some sort of mech warrior thing, without dealing with the fact pressure and oxygen are gone by now is just lazy writing and sloppy direction. Oh and having Finn fall off a platform and coincidentally lift him up because there happens to be a rising platform wasn't exactly a great writing moment either.
Lastly, the whole 'connect people through the Force at distance' was something I personally found very much acceptable for the majority of the movie, knowing that during that time both characters realize they are being 'tele-connected' when it occurs.
However, this concept gets obliterated at the end of the movie by the same writers who introduced this concept just an hour before. Kylo Ren gets tricked seeing Luke Skywalker and only realizes he is some sort of a tele-hologram when he isn't able to hit him with his saber. So, the writers didn't just didn't rewrite the rules of what they introduced just an hour prior, they made this inconsistency an important plot device in the film! How lame is that.
There are more examples but I don't want to bore y'all. Bottom line: I was truly disappointed with this film and I'm getting fed up with Star Wars as an franchise pretty quickly mainly because the writing. Such a shame.