The Ups and Downs

Rating: 6/10 (20 December 2017)

Just like the last film (The Force Awakens) you are either going to love it, or hate it. But I also noticed a lot of people are very much in the middle. I am one of those people. Yes there were some good elements that made me happy, but, there is a lot more issues then I realized walking out; after thinking more and more about it, the more I feel unsatisfactory. I'm not going to go into spoilers, I'm just here to tell you if it is worth the watch. Honestly, it is, but I wouldn't go rushing to the theatre to see it like with The Force Awakens. I'll start off with the positives, firstly, Mark Hamill gives the strongest performance of his career in my opinion, however some of the direction of the character was off. With that said, I felt fulfilled with how Luke was portrayed in this film. Adam Driver gives a riveting, and damaged performance as Kylo Ren, surely his character is a lot more interesting then Force Awakens. I am very curious what will happen to him next. Daisy Ridley as Rey was spot-on, so was her character in many ways. There is a little surprise in the film involving two characters which I felt satisfied with. Ok, those were the ups. As I enjoyed Luke, Ren, and Rey...thats about it for the characters. The others fell flat, Finn is remarkably pointless at this point, he has no arcs, no story, he's just there right now to give John Boyega a paycheck, good for him, but not for us. The Porgs are Fu--ing stupid in the worst way. They're just a dumb excuse to sell TOYS, but why do you NEED that for Star Wars? Doesn't Star Wars sell enough TOYS! When I saw them in the trailer I snapped, this is what Hollywood has turned to. I wouldn't mind so much if they had a purpose, other then to sell TOYS. They are not as annoyed as the Minions, but pretty close. Finn wasn't the only character who was pointless or unneeded, and some of the ways they handle the characters makes no sense, I would go into more detail, but I want you to go experience this yourself. But in my opinion, this film is worth seeing, just don't expect The Empire Strikes Back or anything. It proves that Disneyfying everything isn't always great.