Mediocre. The death knell of Star Wars, sadly.

Rating: 2/10 (19 December 2017)

Mediocre. It feels like it was written by a committee to be what they thought most people would like. Almost everything is a retread of scenes from the original trilogy, but with the characters acting out of character. Nothing new is added at all. There are some good action scenes but overall not a worthy entry in the Star Wars saga. It feels more like a generic Marvel movie and lacks the magic of Star Wars. The humor was mostly wrong and out of place. This isn't Guardian of the Galaxy. There are too many cutesy animals and kids.
Established characters behave out of character or are completely wasted. For some reason Yoda acts like the crazy creature Yoda pretended to be when Luke first met him on Dagobah, not the wise Jedi master he is. It was bad. It's like the director hasn't even watched the earlier movies and doesn't understand Luke, Leia, Yoda, R2, Chewie or 3P0.
The newer characters don't progress either. The end up in the same place as they were at the end of Force Awakens. We don't learn anything of the mythology started in Force Awakens. Snokes is completely wasted with no explanation. Kylo goes nowhere. Neither does Rey. In fact nearly all of the carefully built mythology is thrown out the window and nothing new is added. We end up with a pouty Kylo, almost on the level of pouty Anakin.
The more I think about it, the more disappointed I am. This is the Disney-fication of Star Wars, geared strictly to put out as many movies as possible and turn Star Wars into a generic formulaic franchise like Marvel.
I just saw it a second time and came out liking it even less than the first time.