Enjoyable in a different way

Rating: 8/10 (22 December 2017)

This certainly was a refreshing addition to the Star Wars saga. It is packed with action, humour, and wisdom, and explodes into life following the events of The Force Awakens. There are also some outstanding individual acting performances, most notably Adam Driver, Mark Hammill and Oscar Isaac.
Upon first viewing, I found that there was too much going on in the movie in terms of action - it was all over the place and hard to keep up - but with any Star Wars movie, one viewing isn't enough and it made a lot more sense and I was able to appreciate it more the second time I watched it. The story has a lot of likeness to Return of the Jedi, but it still maintains a sense of uniqueness, and some of the scenes are very enjoyable to watch, including the surprises that are revealed. Overall, the movie sets itself up nicely for episode 9 of the sequels.
My only criticism is that this movie was hyped so much but failed to deliver on certain aspects. For example, it wasn't as deep or spiritual as expected. However, it wasn't too much of a problem, and I did enjoy how they make a lot of reference to nostalgic elements, which you'll see when you watch it.
Overall, an enjoyable movie, that fits in well with the Star Wars stories, in a different fashion.