Could have done without the Carrie Fisher fake out death. Not so much that it happened, just how they did it. It was cool to see her use the Force and save herself, but it could have been done in a much more plausible way without having her look like Space Mary Poppins. She could have been buried under debris and used the force to lift it off herself and make it to safety or something.
Good way to kill off Akbar. The guy who voiced him died, so it needed to be done.
I also like what they did with Kylo Ren here, it really sets up the payoff in the throne room scene later on and leaves you questioning.
I also like that he didn't turn and became the big bad for the next movie. It was fun to see him reign in Hux. They have an interesting dynamic going.
Also, no, the guards in the throne room were not the Knights of Ren. They weren't in this movie and will probably be a major part of Episode IX. Perhaps we'll even see one of them turn and join Rei to rebuild the Jedi.
Kind of surprised they didn't edit or reshoot part of the film to kill off Fisher. I kind of get why they didn't, but I think they should have. After her death, she should have been the one to pilot the ship into the Star Destroyers, with Dern taking over her role as the Resistance leader in future films. The could have reshot some of the movie to make that work. Now it's going to have to happen with CGI or off screen between movies, and the character of Leia deserved a better sendoff than that.
Rey is less of a sue this time, which is nice. Overall the character development is much better in this movie.
Finn is desperately thirsty for half the movie.
No one ever mentions that Poe probably saved the resistance by insisting that they destroy the dreadnought. Liea's reaction to his actions was correct at the time, but someone should have pointed it out later on once they were being pursued by the First Order later on. That thing would have blown them out of the stars with ease, but thanks to him taking it out and removing those cannons, they were able to fend them off long enough to survive.
I've seen a lot of complaints about Poe's characterization in the movie and it's a detail a lot of people missed.
BB-8 was overdone a bit. He was also a bit too much cartoon for the rest of the movie. Would have rather seen someone else piloting the AT-ST towards the end of the film. Rose could have managed to get to it while Finn was distracting Phasma or something along those lines.
Snoke getting killed was epic. Was not expecting it, though they did telegraph it a bit too much. Would have been better if they'd kept it a surprise until the end rather than showing the lightsaber turning towards him.
The casino sequence was shit. Worst part of the movie hands down. The prequel was strong with this segment. It's where the CGI looked the worst, where the movie was the most cartoonish, and overall just didn't fit with the tone of the rest of the movie.
Del Toro was fun, but I could have done without the stutter. It's also not clear if he was the hacker that Maz intended for them to meet or not. It's a bit much to be coincidence. Looking forward to seeing more of him in Episode IX. Really hope he doesn't get to turn good considering how many people he managed to get killed. I really don't see the Resistance forgiving him for that.
I liked Rose's character a lot, but it was unfortunate that she and Finn got stuck with the weakest part of the film. This could have been a lot shorter.
I liked Luke's old man thing. There was still enough of him there that it worked. This was especially apparent in the scene with him and R2.
Phasma is probably not dead. Though I doubt she's feeling good after that. Her armor probably saved her, but I don't think she made it out unscathed.
I liked Yoda's appearance, and am glad they went with puppet Yoda rather than CG Yoda.
Was expecting Luke to die, just not how he went out. I think they wanted to suggest a parallel with Obi-Wan, and instead went with a parallel with Yoda.
Yes, despite some I've seen complain about it, it was explained. Kylo mentions why when he tells Rey that the effort of doing it would have killed her. That's what happened to Luke and why he dies.
Rey's parents is bullshit. What we hear in this movie that they are "nobody" doesn't jive with what we learn from TFA. They are saving that for IX. I don't really know who her parents were, but this makes no sense. Of course, they could have been nobodies who were related to somebody.
Though, even then the story that they are dead on Jakku doesn't really work given the flashback we see of her being left behind and the ship taking off in TFA. She's also not a slave in TFA, though she should be given the story we get here.
This movie takes too much pleasure in screwing with the audience for me to trust that one bit. It also makes a bit story point out of it, and the fake out doesn't seem genuine.
I don't trust it.
I also don't think she and Kylo are brother and sister, or that she's Luke's daughter either. Maybe Wedge had a granddaughter, or she's the grandchild of the result of an affair between Obi-wan and Satine or Tachi. Enough time has passed since the Clone Wars that she could easily be the grandchild of someone from that era even if it isn't Obi-wan.
Another thing I liked was the three different perspectives of Luke confronting Ben. That worked in the favor of how the dynamic between Kylo and Rey played out.
It was also fun to see him go off the deep end after the throne room sequence once he wakes up and finds Rey gone.
I really need to watch this again to get some of this stuff figured out and settled. This is one of those movies you kind of need to watch more than once to really get a handle on.
Broom kid only worked because of the casino sequence at the end. I could have done without that entire sequence, even if it meant not having the broom kid tag on the end of the movie.
This movie desperately needed tightening and there's a lot there that just didn't need to be. It could have easily cut a half hour of time and been a better movie for it.
Though, on the plus side a lot of the stuff that was there just to sell toys [the porgs notably] doesn't really nose it's way into things like the Ewoks did. Disney seems to have figured out how to handle that sort of thing in a Star Wars movie without it being excessively intrusive.
