Disney has made Star Wars boring

Rating: 4/10 (15 December 2017)

Let's just dive right in. The biggest flaw of the movie is that the long and unnecessary casino planet side plot could have been avoided had characters actually communicated. This little adventure is not only boring, it introduces Rose who is one of the most annoying characters in the entire franchise (DJ is pretty bad as well).
The problem with this side plot is that nothing is accomplished. Now, some people are saying that this breaks common movie tropes because the heroes go on a mission and don't succeed. But the mission wasn't even entertaining! Plus it was an endangerment to the rest of the crew and could've been avoided had Holdo actually communicated.
The Rey and Luke stuff was a little more interesting and Kylo Ren also shows some great character development. There's a nice payoff at the end of the movie with the battle in the throne room which is one of the better action scenes in the franchise. This felt like the climax though and it was strange when the movie continued to the base in Crait.
I think it was interesting when Kylo wanted Rey to join him and thought it would have been an incredible twist had they teamed up and Luke would have to take them on in the next movie. The film hints at things like the Resistance not being as good as they are made out to be (buying weapons from the same guy who sells them to the First Order), and even Luke making some dark decisions as well. But leave it to Disney to keep Rey a goody two shoes and follow the formulaic path...
Speaking of Luke, him sensing the evil in Kylo (Ben Solo at the time) should not have resulted in him trying to kill Kylo. Luke was the one who defeated Darth Vader and saw him become good again (Vader, the guy who murdered children). Luke sensing the darkness in Kylo should not have resulted in such a hasty action.
Also, the use of the Force in this movie is so over the top that it makes midi-chlorians look normal. It seems like the Force is often used to move the story along easier, but the worst part is when Leia flies like Superman in space back to the ship. One of the dumbest moments in any Star Wars film.
The movie had the perfect time for a lightsaber battle between Kylo and Luke, but instead it results in Luke running out of Force mana and dying? We really haven't had a great lightsaber battle yet between two experienced Force users and this was a missed opportunity. Then again Kylo can hardly hold his own with Rey and even needed to be saved by her at one point, so Luke probably would've defeated Kylo. If I was Luke I would have created the Force ghost on Crait (probably costs less mana too), bait Kylo out of the ship, then actually appear and defeat him. This logically would help the Resistance by taking out the most powerful member of the First Order.
When the movie ends it feels like we got no further than we did in The Force Awakens. Really the only interesting story being told is the conflict between Rey and Kylo but that has to be padded out by boring things like the casino planet and the First Order waiting for the Resistance to run out of fuel. For as big as the universe is in Star Wars, Disney has somehow managed to make it boring.