Why all of the hate?

Rating: 9/10 (15 December 2017)

I saw TLJ on its opening night, and no one I spoke to afterwards had anything bad to say about the movie, at least not anything about the product as a whole which would lower their initial review beneath 8/10 stars. So, I was very surprised to wake up this morning and read not only in my local newspaper, but across various social media, that the movie was not well received by so many fans. As such, and to defend this very enjoyable movie, I felt the need to write a review for it.
In the interest of keeping this spoiler free, I will be as broad as I can with what I liked and did not like. The best thing about this movie is the cast. The acting is enjoyable throughout, and seeing how characters interact with each other in new ways is very thought provoking. The comedy lands well for the most part, some jokes feeling a little different than what we've seen in Star Wars before, but given the attitudes of these new characters I still felt it was fitting.
Now, for the plot - I loved it! They introduce some things that will make fans of the series squeal, and leave enough ambiguity in character decisions to make it unclear in which direction our characters may go. It is mysterious, it is fun, it adds to the lore, and it takes risks where it needs to.
As for why I gave this 9 stars...honestly, I would have given it 8.5 if I could have, but I rounded up in order to combat the negative reviews I have been seeing. My gripes are not enough to say that this is a bad movie, not even close. But they do exist. The focus of the movie was very biased towards Rey and Kylo. I loved their story in this, it is so fantastic, but other characters suffer from this because I am just not invested in any story that is not revolving around Rey and/or Kylo in some way. Finn and Poe have their moments, and they are still fun and important, but they felt much more like a side story. Also, I felt that there was a scene with Leia really early on that was just weird (you'll know what I mean). I also felt like the ending could have had a slightly bigger finish. And these things did take away from the movie for me, thus not a full 10/10 stars. But it was still fantastic and fun, and definitely is worth watching. Overall I did love it, and I fully recommend it to everyone.