A balanced review. Good, bad, and ugly.

Rating: 4/10 (17 December 2017)

When you hear critics saying, "...greatest Star Wars since Empire..." and you watch The Force Awakens which establishes so many mysterious back stories, then yes you come into this movie expecting a lot. The 10 star reviewers are missing that point. Furthermore, anyone giving this movie 10 stars for Carrie Fisher's acting must have seen a different movie than I did, because Leia was literally in a coma half of the movie.
The opening crawl of this movie was analogous to how the movie would go. Basically nothing has changed since the last movie, and nothing gets resolved.
The movie starts with the Resistance evacuating an unnamed planet under duress very much like Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back. Amazing visuals and a new larger class star destroyer is introduced. The scene is then ruined by Poe and Hux having one of the most cringe worthy scenes in Star Wars since the Gungan Boss Nass slobber speech in Episode I.
Over the course of the entire 2.5+ hour movie this same pattern is repeated. Amazing visuals, a scene that builds to a crescendo only to be ruined by cute humor followed by a middle finger from Rian Johnson.
The good: Rey's training on the island, Kylo Ren and Rey's force connection (even if it was a ruse by Snoke), Yoda's infinite wisdom, the light speed kamakazi, Chewbacca and Porg humor, and Luke's honorable death with artistic visuals back to the binary sunset on Tatooine. Overall one of the best visual movies from the Star Wars franchise.
The bad: Snoke's character development being as bland as the decor in his throne room, Carrie Fishers acting, the Maz / Casino planet side story, the slowest space pursuit in history, Snoke's death, Phasma's death, BB8 plugging holes, BB8 AT-ST antics, significant plot shortcuts like how Rey got off Snoke's ship, and the forced development of Rose's character.
The ugly: Force Leia, cheap humor, and a director with so much hubris that he thought he could stick his thumb in the audience eye over and over again.
This movie will go down as the most controversial Star Wars subject along side the endless debates about Ewoks and Jake Lloyd. I, like many fans came out of this movie very frustrated expecting to learn some answers stemming from Rey's visions in The Force Awakens. As I've had days to reflect on the movie, it isn't as bad as I originally felt, but it falls very short of the expectations set from the previous film.