The first step in destroying Star Wars

Rating: 4/10 (3 January 2020)

While Disney were off to an OK start with Episode 7, which while uninspired, was not horrible, this movie takes a sharp turn immediately.
The first scene has Mark Hamill act out a bizarre parody of his Luke Skywalker, to such a degree that he even spoke publicly after the film's release about how he didn't agree with it.
The movie follows a meandering plot that relies on introducing new technological barriers, such as fuel, gravity and distance, are introduced to the SW universe.
These feel weird because the series has been almost completely free of technobabble - rather, its technology was just there and was used in a self-explanatory way.
Halfway through the movie a 30 minute detour that has no real reason to exist, other than perhaps as a means to sell more toys, or to break up the monotony of the dreary space-faring with constant talk about fuel and despair.
There were a few character developments that could've been interesting, but mostly it's all thrown away in either an attempt to keep the movie suitable for a 7 year old audience, to sell to the Chinese market or to sell more toys.
I actually think that the movie that is in here could've been a fun sci-fi romp if it wasn't a Star Wars movie.