Please Make them Shorter

Rating: 6/10 (20 December 2017)

Maybe I'd have felt differently if I'd seen this in a less crowded theater where they didn't play 10 or so trailers before it, but this felt about five hours long even though I think it was two and a half. We were practically being held hostage. And yet, with it being so long, they deliberately withheld the answers to questions like Rey's parentage to manipulate us into seeing the next one! I fail to see how a story can be meaningful if it just keeps going without a definite, planned end.
Still, even a grand testament to commercialism can be entertaining. I enjoyed the originals as well as this; in spite of myself I needed to know what would happen next. If nothing else, this installment shows beautiful scenery. I am being generous giving it a 6. While part of me believes movie sequels just should not be, I can't deny that the criticisms I've seen of the new SW trilogy come from taking the franchise far too seriously. And let's face it, the critique of Rey is just a mask for feelings of emasculation--not that Rey is my favorite character. By the way, speaking as a lady, why do both she AND Rose have to be good with machines? I'm not going to judge a piece of media for not having any female characters interested in science or math. Do the humanities exist in the SW universe?
I realize this might be the wrong context in which to ask that. In any case, this is a mostly harmless movie which is consistent in tone with the originals. I might actually like it more than Force Awakens, though I wouldn't watch it again or anything.