Earth shattering disappointment!

Rating: 7/10 (16 December 2017)

I came out of a midnight screening really deflated.
There are some great bits in this, such as Mark Hamil's performance, but between the good bits the connective tissue was for the most part thin.
I must be honest, I didn't like Carrie Fisher in this, not one bit. She reminded me of someone I didn't expect to pop into my head, in response to some of her facial expressions, and I found myself suddenly reminded of that terrible TV show Mrs Browns' Boys - Mrs Brown in particular - and found myself unable to get that out of my head. Now, it's probably quite unfortunate that that occurred, because it went on to distract me every time she popped up, causing me to dislike her performance. Perhaps without that thought pop up I'd have been happy to see her. In any case I won't be disappointed not to her in Episode 9, in light of that peculiar thing.
Anyway, that detracts from a meaningful review, but the film did that in it's own regard, taking us on a huge detour from a potentially meaningful movie, a prolonged side mission to another planet with Fin, where we got to see what to me seemed like quite shoddy, practical creature effects. I like the use of practical effects in the Force Awakens, but those were really quite good. These were a bit like some of the creatures in films like Labyrinth. I guess it pays homage to past star wars movies, in some way, but I don't see why they needed to be quite so rubbery. That particular bit ate into about 30 minutes worth of movie.
That issue, in addition to a few others bits here and there, gave the movie something of a 'made for TV' feel about it.
Anyway, in summary there are a few sketchy revelations, some new force behaviors, and a single event running throughout the movie, spread out across a few separate attacks, in effect a prolonged encounter and a few related scenes. There's no real story. Not really.