A Solid 8th Installment

Rating: 9/10 (4 May 2018)

****SPOILER WARNING****
To start off, let me just say that I really loved this movie, more than The Force Awakens personally. It didn't seem like a two and a half hour movie at all to me, and I was thoroughly entertained the entire time.
Now here's what I liked and disliked about the film:
GOOD:

Luke. Just seeing Mark Hamill come back as Luke was really great, and he did an amazing job throughout the entire movie.
That Yoda scene. I loved how they used the traditional puppet, wacky Yoda (like in Empire Strikes Back), as opposed to the prequel CG Yoda. I'm glad how they kept the scene short and simple, and how he actually contributed to the plot, rather than just having him there for the fans. It felt like the perfect opportunity for him to appear and also felt necessary.
I also liked Adam Driver as Kylo better in TLJ than TFA, and I especially like how they gave really great depth to his character in this movie. Driver is a great and underrated actor.
Similar to Kylo, I really liked Rey in this movie. I felt more sympathy and emotion towards her, and I feel she was handled very well by Rian Johnson in TLJ.
Poe was one of the best parts of this movie, and I can't really find any bad things about his actions in the film or how Oscar Isaac portrayed him. I'm glad they gave him more screentime and he was one of my favorite characters in the movie.
I thought Benicio Del Toro played DJ nearly perfectly in this film, however I do have complaints about the character.
I did like Snoke in the movie, and he reminded me of an even more sinister and intimidating version of Palpatine. The motion capture by Andy Serkis was very impressive as well, although I also have some complaints about how he was handled.
BB-8 was great as suspected.
I found the force connection between Kylo and Rey very interesting and a great way of storytelling and communicating between the characters. However, I wish they explained more about how it worked (why are *they* connected? Can other Jedi do this to each other?)
Luke's force projection. In my opinion, that was the perfect way to send off Luke. But I don't know why he projected himself to look younger...

BAD:

Similar to what I've ears a lot of critics say is how the Canto Byte scenes were semi-useless and didn't fit. I don't completely agree with that because how i do agree that there was a much faster and easier way to accomplish (or I guess fail?) what they did, we did learn about Rose's past and I wish they touched a little more on her character which leads me into my issues with...
Rose. Now I feel like this character didn't get enough attention that she should've. I thought she was going to be one of the main characters, and how I guess that is sort of true, it didn't feel like that watching it.
Phasma. Oh my, what is her purpose again? To have 7 minutes of screentime and go away?
Now this part leads me into my issues with DJ and Snoke. They *COMPLETELY* wasted DJ in this film. He could've been so much more! However, I do think it made sense that he traded on Rose and Finn, they could've used him in more scenes. It felt as if it was rushed.
My issues with Snoke. I don't like how they killed him off. They could've gone an entirely different direction in my opinion. What I presumed that was going to happen was: 1. Set him up in TFA as a mysterious evil prescience. 2. Have him be the main villain of TLJ and 3. Have him killed off in EP 9. Now I'm not a filmmaker, I have no idea how this woudl've fit into TLJ storyline, I just think if they took the route of Snoke becoming the trilogy's main villain, it would be better.
Kylo not Turing to the light side. After killing Snoke, Kylo essentially broke free from being the apprentice of Snoke, or at least that's how I saw it. The fight sequence with Kylo and Rey in Snoke's thrown room was great, but following that, it would've felt more appropriate if Kylo would've turned the other cheek and joined Rey. I understand how he is conflicted, but it seemed to me at that point that he should've realized the correct path to follow.
Rose "saving" Finn. Just... why? What was the point of that. It would've been way more emotional and better if Finn sacrificed himself, and I was almost disappointed he didn't die (that might sound wrong, I like Finn, I just think the story would've been better if that happened.
And probably my biggest complaint about the movie is how they handled the pacing. It went back and forth and back and forth and back and forth between three separate stories. When Luke is training Rey, I don't want them to cut it off and go to a ten minute scene about either Rose and Finn or the Rebellion (Hodo/Leia). When Luke is training Rey, I want to see Luke training Rey. Nearly every time they cut to another scene in the middle of a Luke/Rey scene, the only thing I thought of was, "Come on. Let's get back to Luke." Or "I really don't care about the other people right now" whenever they cut away from Luke.

Overall, it's not a flawless film, but very far from bad. I liked this movie better than The Force Awakens after a first viewing, and it's still very much enjoyable. Even though there might've been some unneeded scenes or stories contained in the film and some serious pacing issues, I don't think it makes it as worse as other people are saying by any means. I mean, who doesn't love more Star Wars?
RATING: 8.7/10