More interested in making political statements than having a reasonable plot

Rating: 3/10 (17 December 2017)

From the beginning the film grates with my new Jar Jar binks, Domhall Gleeson completely miscast as General Hux present to supremely ham it up with his drama student's imitation of Peter Cushing. If they wanted someone to play an imposing menacing baddie with some gravitas why not cast someone that actually resonates that such as Charles Dance, Mark Strong or countless other actors with a more mature menacing presence. He then goes on to engage in a competely inappropriate and ridiculous moment of "humour" with Poe which further undermines the sense of darkness that should be emanating from the first order.
The main plot is a dull drawn out escape which many people have pointed out the flaws with previously. Luke SkyWalker is completely underused, Jedi training now seems to have become completely superfluous as Rey gains amazing powers after one brief training session with Luke and Leia has suddenly gained the powers of superwoman. There is a sidequest to stop the tracking of the rebel fleet which could have been an interesting and dark exploration of an immoral materialistic arms producing culture but consists mainly of a dull brief trip round a casino. The whole idea of how the tracking has happened on the rebel fleet ships and who has done it ignored. Snook is dispatched with before we get any idea of who he is , where he came from and how he turned Kylo Ren to the dark side. It seems like whoever wrote the plot was more concerned about making student a level political platitiudes that money is bad, women are good, and men irresponsible, cowardly, or incompetent than coming up with a cogent strong plot that fitted in with the rest of the star wars lore. I am all for progressive politics in films but not when it is done in such a ham fisted way as this at the expense of plot.