A Star Wars movie I wanted to see, but with a lot of things missing.

Rating: 3/10 (21 December 2017)

We can all agree that The Force Awakens, while sort of a rehash of A New Hope, opened the way for the series to go in a new and exciting route. Do we get that. Somewhat.
The story: Following the destruction of Starkiller base, The First Order forces the Resistance to flee their own base, while our main young hero goes to another world to learn the ways of the force from a wise old Jedi master. However as the resistance nears defeat by the First Order, our young hero must go to save her friends and face off against the black suited villain with a red lightsaber...................ok, ok, this is starting to sound like Empire Strikes Back.
In a lot of ways it's very different of course, so here we go. Ummm, let's see. What I like most are some of the twists, so I think I'll go right ahead with all the positives. Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker is as amazing as I remember from watching the original trilogy. Carrie Fischer as Leia is still great, but I'll get to a main problem with her character in a bit. Daisy Ridley as Rey is still amazing, and she carries much of this film, even if she'll be nowhere as iconic as Luke will ever be, no matter how many instalments she's in. John Boyega is still really good as Finn and Oscar Issac as Poe Dameron still does a great job. Adam Driver really brings Kylo Reb to a new height in this film, and I'd even put him on par with Luke in the original trilogy. It was also a joy seeing Yoda again
As for the twists and turns; some I like, some I don't, none I hate or love. Rey's parents turning out to be 'nobodies' works for me, and finally does away with this hereditary/midichlorian bull Lucas fed us. Good on Rian Johnson. Also, this movie kills off 'supreme leader Snoke' and gives us probably the best lightsaber fight we've had in these movies. I liked Luke turning out to be a hologram at the end. I'm not a Star Wars fanboy so I wasn't ripping my hair out at that 'blasphemy'.
As for negatives, there are some. The most talked about 'POINTLESS' scene is the Finn/Rose detour to this casino planet. It really drags. Some people defend it saying it's meant to show the oppressed people of the galaxy, but I didn't get that, just felt like a cheap way to drag out the film. To me it felt like if a friend of mine was sprawled out on the floor having a seizure: but instead of calling an ambulance I just started playing X-Box Live instead. it's so out of place. Not to mention the whole Finn/Rose relationship felt like it was improvised. The kiss, and Rose is like "I love you" at the end. WHAT!? Then I remembered Star Wars is owned by Disney now so.................
As for Leia, I really think not killing her off was the greatest disservice. Which means, all we'll get now is a CGI Leia, or she'll just die off screen or in some graphic novel. The biggest sin of all though would be if they re-casted her for episode IX. She should have died in this film. Maybe they were saving her death for episode IX but considering what happened, killing her off in this film would've been better.
You could say this film was a bit disappointing. I guess since I already had an idea for the film in my head watching the trailer. I don't know what there's left to do. Johnson's talked about producing his own instalments in the series but what. Just more Empire/First Order vs Rebel/Resistance plots? Episode IX should just call itself "Return of the Other Jedi" and own what it'll turn out to be, a rehash.
I don't agree with Red Letter Media that Star Wars is limited. There's so many interesting ideas for conflicts I can think off, but Disney doesn't give two SÂ£$%s about them; as proven with the MCU, they're fine with safe, cliche, formulaic films. Kinda makes me a little sad they're buying Fox Studios and the X-Men with it.