Heavy Spoilers

Rating: 1/10 (18 December 2017)

*SPOILERS*
As a bit of a preface, one of the resons that Lucas has had such a lasting impact on so many fans is because he created an alternate reality that had creative properties and themes that helped lead to the creation of a an alternate reality universe that fans could immerse themselves in. This was built up over decades, and love or hate any of the prior films in this series, they kept that alternate reality in place. This movie destroys it.
First off the absolutely insane condescension towards women. I don't want my young daughter to ever see this movie, the level of patronizing and superficial treatment is utterly demeaning. Leia will be the one people point to first, exhibiting the powers of one of the most powerful sith lords ever to have lived- while she was a never trained force sensitive? Then she violently assaults a subordinate non force adept for making a call she didn't like- you would be hard pressed to find a more demeaning portrayal of a character. She is in a position of supreme power and resorts to violence against her staunchest ally? What message is that sending? Someone with nigh god level powers beating on a layman. Disgusting.
Admiral Holdo is even worse. Trapped in a situation where you are facing overwhelming odds and every person in you command is convinced they are going to die you refuse to tell them your gameplan..... why? Are there truly women who are stupid enough to do something like this? Managing morale is paramount to being a good leader, and Admiral Holdo fails in this aspect more spectacularly then anyone I've seen in any movie ever. What's worse- there were a plethora of modifications she could have taken to greatly increase the odds of survival for her people which she didn't even contemplate. She lost the lives of almost every person under her command unnecessarily due entirely to gross ineptitude.
The character Rose, as a story driver was shockingly poor. She came across as a third tier club comic that offered absolutely no emotional weight, wasn't funny, had no chemistry with anyone she interacted with and every moment she was on screen was utterly irrelevant to the plot. This is shamefully terrible story telling, sub par, at best, acting, tonally off and nothing but an anchor around the neck of an already terrible movie. In the final battle scene when all of them are racing full throttle into the enemy line, she drops back as she is told to do while Finn hammers full throttle to try and kamikaze the enemy canon. Somehow- Rose manages to T-Bone him out of the way with utterly no explanation on how she was driving an identical vehicle started off way behind and managed to loop around. This plays out like the director realized at the last minute he had marginalized the women yet again and magically made her have super powers over the laws of physics so she could do something.
Now we get to Rey. First off is her parents. We spent 1.75 movies having this built up as a crucial plot point to find out it is...... nothing. You don't do this. If it isn't important, briefly deal with it and move on, you don't spend almost two movies building up to revealing- it never mattered. I see a lot of comments about how much of a Mary Sue Rey is, but let's get real- she did absolutely nothing in this movie that mattered. Every important action that had real consequences was done by a male. It's as if the director is incapable of imagining how a woman could actually matter. It seems like he is uncomfortable with this side of himself, so he makes Rey seem like she is very powerful, but at the end of the day- she isn't good enough to do anything that matters. JJ Abrams at least had Rey as a crucial plot device- this one- nothing.
Continuing with the last point in abstract- Only a force sensitive male is allowed to have any impact on the larger story arc. Ren, Snoke and Luke have every pivotal event that actually impacts the outcome revolve exclusively around them. Rey, Leia, Rose, Finn and Holdo are nothing but sidekicks waiting for the force powered men to direct the flow of the story. This is unique in Star Wars lore and a disturbing abandonment of common people making the key difference. Han saving Luke from Vader, Lando rescuing Leia, Chewie and Luke, Lando destroying the Death Star, Amidala ceasing control of Naboo back from the trade federation- it has been a constant theme in Star Wars movies- even with super powered warriors, common people and their actions can decide the outcome. This movie has absolutely none of that. Everything attempted by someone who isn't a male force wielder fails miserably.
Supreme Leader Snoke- I will say that I am a *HUGE* Star Wars fan- this one probably would bother casual fans a lot less. Snoke linking Rey and Ben was a force dominate mind ability. Powerful Sith Lords have been doing things along these lines for millennia. This meant that Snoke was inside the heads of both Rey and Ben and was manipulating what they were capable of seeing. Furthermore, all force adepts have a level of precognition- the more powerful they are, the stronger that becomes. Why this explanation- Snoke would have seen what Kylo Ren was planning on doing with the light saber *before* he even had the thought. It is hard to explain just how stupid this was. This would be akin to the Hulk getting killed by a falling marshmallow. They set the story line in a world that has rules- this was such a bad plot point it was grotesquely painful to watch- all for a laugh.
Now we get to the humor. Every Star Wars movie had humor in it, normally it was focused on the droids, used sparingly and appropriately. This movie suffered from the humor in rather profound ways. It has been implied and discussed at length that this is a dark movie- watching it felt more like a bad buddy cop/rom com hybrid- but even they will lay down their comedy at certain junctures to create a proper emotional tone to drive home a point. This movie failed profoundly and absolutely to create any sense of true tension or dread. It felt lighter in tone than any Star Wars movie, but a massive margin- Episode I seems downright depressing in tone compared to this.
Clearly the director has absolutely no sense for comedy whatsoever, not how to use it, when to use it, or why it should be used. This is a movie where almost all of the good guys die, they are beaten to the point of being non existent, and people who were OK with the movie were in high spirits walking out? I don't know if you can find a better indicator of what was wrong with this movie then that. The director failed on a catastrophic level.