Watched it. Certainly did a better job with what very little plot points Rian Johnson left (after purposely destroying them all whilst bringing absolutely nothing new to the table).
However, it felt like an endgame movie. Except it was done by DC with only 2 prior movies. LOL. So much story and detail jumbled into one, it was like a short series of a comics made into a live-action adaption. Looks good on paper, when actually told as a movie, you can see it's just blatant fan-service.
I should clarify I don't blame JJ in any way for my gripes with this film. I think he did a fine job setting up his vision in TFA with the mysteries. I simply blame Rian Johnson for ignoring or purposely making those plot points ignorable. I mean, JJ had to quickly close the loose end on who Snoke is, and you can tell it was rushed, he definitely planned for Snoke to be fleshed out in episode 8.
Speaking of fleshed out, I actually enjoyed how they improved Poe Dameron as a character. If you ignored the very insensitive side in episode 8 where at the start he clearly had the mentality "The greatest number for the greatest good" as in, sacrifice your men for the best results, he became more down to earth, realising the burden of commanding an entire fleet so suddenly, and once he acknowledges many pilots may die for what appears to be a losing war, he breaks down over the stress.
Ben felt rushed. Again, the development needed for him to fit his ending needed to be expressed in episode 8. There was no conflict in episode 8 in comparison to Vader, who once you look back at episode 5, he wanted Luke to live because he could rule the empire as *father and son*, and overthrow the emperor. In comparison to Ben who wants Rey for...? It's not like she's related. Seems like he only wanted her on his side because she was cute.
Although I did like the relationship between Ben and Rey being 'strong' enough for the force to assist them (i.e. physical manifestation), something that conflicts the original belief of the Jedi.
I didn't like Palpatine return. I liked the idea that Snoke is an imperfect clone because of the poor advancements in tech (or purposeful, depending on your view). But bringing Palpy back was a no-no for me.
Force powers have for some reason increased by a 100 fold in the past millennia in the star wars universe. Force lightning that can fry an entire armada? Healing? Rey is more powerful than vader. Yeah, damn right that erks me, even if he's a cyborg. When he was Rey's age, he attempted force healing and failed.
I'm nto bothered by Rey, but she, kylo, snoke and new palpy feel way out of universe in terms of power scale. It's like that non-canon trailer for the force unleashed video game where starkiller brings down an entire star destroyer with the force.
Overall conflicted, I really want to enjoy it, but the series has lowered my expectations. In my view, it's so bad, the prequels feel like the perfect expansion of the SW universe.
