A film desperately trying to be great by being too smart

Rating: 4/10 (30 December 2017)

A quick overview of why it was so bad:
*Space "bombers".
*Flying through space surrounded by an oxygen bubble.
*Poor character development
*Overuse of special effects for no effect
One of the first things we see in the move is a space bomber. While this is not the first time that a space bomber has been used in the Star Wars franchise, it is certainly one of the silliest. The Tie Bombers used in Empire Strikes Back seemed to be using some sort of way to propel the bombs out of the bombers and onto the asteroids where the Falcon was hiding. These rebel bombers seemed to actually be relying on gravity to drop, which doesn't seem possible since that Dreadnought is not big enough to have that much gravity. Also, the whole scene with the bomber crew member trying to launch the bombs was a poor excuse for drama. Was she supposed to be unable to climb, so that's why she was madly kicking the ladder or was that just a poor choice of trying to get the bombing trigger?
The whole scene with Leia and the attack on the last big cruiser was working well, right up until Leia was about to die in space. In no way did I want Leia to die, but since the entire bridge of the ship was blown out then so be it. The camera zoomed in on Leia and I thought this is their tribute to Carrie Fisher, giving a long shot and letting us think about it. I actually started to tear up...and then they pull this stupid move worthy of B-movie. Though Leia was just blown out into the vacuum of space, likely should have been killed by the concussive force, she was supposedly total conscious and able to pull a bunch of random oxygen molecules around her to allow her to survive, use the force to pull herself back to the ship, and even though it was not an airlock she was able to get herself back into the ship. I know we're dealing with Science Fiction, but there is still supposed to be something close to science. Even though Star Wars is more quasi-science there should at least be some basic suspension of disbelief and general constraints. If Leia was that powerful, why didn't she just use the Force to bash all the enemy ships together or cause their ordinance to explode in their ships.
For character development, it seems they admire Quentin Tarantino's random plot twists. We figure there is a big story behind Snoke. Maybe there was originally a Snoke story, but instead they just slice him in half and forget about him half way through the movie. Phasma may be a small role, but at least make something more of the role especially when you have a big name like Gwendoline Christie playing her. Unfortunately that was not the case, and she is limited to a fight with Finn and then dropped into a fire. Want to know about Rey's parents? Well they were nothing and we're not going to talk about them. All these seem to be a consistent war on character development in this movie.
Finally, the red sand on the planet just over played. Ultimately, the red sand existed so they could point to Luke and say there were no footprints, so we have proof he wasn't even there. Why? There does not seem to be a reason except to maybe give a little extra CGI work to people. That lightsaber battle could have happened on a solid floor with no evidence that Luke wasn't real, and we could have accept that he still wasn't there. I think the only thing it does prove is that Kylo was to dumb or enraged to realize Luke wasn't there. It didn't do anything for the audience. Even the lame hydrofoil fighters that stirred up the red dirt seemed pointless and dumb.
I prefer to give useful feedback when critiquing but this was one of those instances where things legitimately seemed dumb, pulled right out of the imagination of someone who has no writing experience let alone sci-fi experience. I'm not sure if that is the case with Rian Johnson but it sure seems like it. If Disney is considering giving him script control of some yet-to-be-named Star Wars trilogy, they should think again.