I came out of the theatre with mixed feelings

Rating: 7/10 (24 December 2017)

I came out of the theatre with mixed feelings. For the most part I thought it was a "good" movie although a missed opportunity for the new trilogy in many ways.
There were some excellent battle sequences that used CGI well along with some beautiful scenes and a diverse colour palate. The different and darker tone that was used was interesting and refeshing, Kylo Ren changed from being a weak antagonist in the last to a more interesting character in this and I also liked the general movement and decisions the film took. Unlike many others, I was fine with the way Luke was portrayed and felt that it blended nicely with the rest of the story.
With all of this being said though, this movie is not without its faults and there are a considerable amount of them.
There is a noticeable pacing issue that lends to boring scenes and awkward transitions. I also felt that there was a level of over saturation in that they tried to fit too many characters both old and new to the film with too many subplots into a single movie. The result is time devoted to sequences with questionable relevancy to the main story and close to no character development in many characters that makes me wonder if they were included for marketing, toys, red herrings or set ups for a next instalment.
There is also a lack of logic or explanation for many things including how the force is used in instances, how time has past and why decisions are made by characters that seem to simply be there to pander to a lazy and convenient way to make a story arch among other small less significant parts. Needless to say, although most are not blatantly obvious, the keen viewer or one that will view it more than once will notice these are plot holes.
Even though the film has taken a much different direction that the others, one still cannot deny the mirroring that is throughout the film. It is nowhere near as noticeable as The Force Awakens but it is still there. you could argue that it is just a product of it being in the same universe and story line but it has aggravated me.
There is also some comedy relief and cute creatures sprinkled throughout the film that wasn't too distracting but still felt too "Disney" to me and not reminiscent of the original trilogy minus the Ewoks of course.
I would have liked to see Rey interact with Luke more and even though I liked Kylo Ren's character in this, there still seems to be a lot missing from his story.
Looking past my nit picking, I still feel like despite the actual significant plot points within the film, we still haven't learned a whole lot more of the story and I dread a single sequel to complete the trilogy like planned will not be significant enough to make the story seem finished. It is a good time and a casual movie that you can enjoy. Nothing outstanding but just another placeholder for the next film.