Defies Expectations

Rating: 6/10 (22 December 2017)

No, seriously, "defying expectations" seems to be the only thing they wanted to do in this film, and you can take that in just about any context you like. Serious scenes had gags, lighthearted scenes had serious casualties, "the one thing we need to do" was several "one things" that never happened, the ancient Jedi religion wasn't so important, the entire mission with the new character was a misdirection, Luke was rumored to go bad (and didn't), Rey was supposed to learn the Force and her history (she didn't), the showdown with the Sith was both brutal and slapstick at the same time (and not in a good way like Army of Darkness), and a significant portion of the movie (and the casualties) could've been avoided if the senior Rebel leadership took 20 seconds to explain the plan to key leadership.
I'm still giving it a 6, since it had more substance than Episode 7, and significantly more was done right here than the prequel trilogy. The characters had a purpose in life, the battles were appropriate in scope and brutality, the shots were appropriate and epic, and it was still fun to watch. Kylo Ren was definitely better here, but still not quite the presence of Darth Vader...which they even kinda kept in perspective at the beginning of the movie.
All in all, sequels are considerably better than the prequels, but still not quite the caliber of the originals.