Character disagreement leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to 1/10 ratings.

Rating: 9/10 (19 December 2017)

I am not a die hard star wars fan. As such I am not looking for anything specific, nor do I have any expectations that can be crushed if the writers were to take the plot in a slightly "different" direction than one might expect.
That is what has caused such a polarized set of reviews.
Without expecting anything specific the movie delivered pretty much the same quality as episode 7. That is: a large dose of nostalgic star wars fanfare, a beefed up level of humor, solid graphics, typically good music, big space ships, aliens, and the bloody dark vs light side of the force!
There was some clever use of the prominent characters, and some great moments.
Having said that, the massive numbers of negative reviews probably revolve around character roles/choices. Some may be questionable, in particular in comparison to what a die hard would like to see.
Another con may be the fact that some of the newer characters are stronger than others. With a few of them getting their own stories, it is only natural some stories may be less interesting.
Some people seemed to take issue with the plot.
Seriously? Has star wars ever delivered profound, thought provoking bursts of brain activity?
The plot is always a bunch of random detours until green light saber meets red.
At the end of it all, this is a solid movie best compared to Guardians of the Galaxy due to the higher degree of humor. IMO this was a better version.
Those who haven't tired of 8 prior Star Wars installments should have a good time.
I would warn Die Hard fans that they will either love it or hate it. (tho I am sure most die hard's have already seen it)
For the record I went with 2 far bigger fans of the series than myself, and both loved the movie.
On that note, 1/10 reviews always make me laugh. This only happens when you have a very strong negative emotion attached to a film.
These reviews only come from those who already hate the series, are growing very tired with it, or in this case, die hard fans being horribly let down by some of the choices.
I picture anyone who gave this a 1/10 yelling ERRRRRRR, and smashing the mouse down like a hammer as they submit that score.
Now the only thing left for you guys is to troll around and smash that unhelpful button for reviews like mine. :)