The Official Star Wars Thread

The New Order is full of idiots:  Kylo Ren isn't so much scary as petulant, his comedy general is next to worthless, Captain Phasma proved to be absolutely worthless (again), and the new/dead emperor didn't seem like much of a manager prior to getting cut in half.  Combined they've built a "Planet Killer" that should have the obvious limitation that it can only hit whatever target comes around while the planet orbits its sun (and they forgot to guard the rear door) and now a whole bunch of super-duper Star Destroyers that explode at the drop of a hat.  Wow, that was one poorly run fleet.  Why not hyperdrive a couple ships ahead of the rebels and cut off their escape?  How did one empty rebel cruiser manage to wipe out the whole fleet?

But I did like the way they managed to balance 3 threads (compared to the usual 1 or 2).  "Rose' was likable even if her name doesn't sound very "Star-Warsy" and her final crash speech was crammed full of saccharine-sweetness.  In fact, much of the humor like the opening "phone call put on hold" and "reaching out and touching the Force" seemed more like a Star Wars parody than real Star Wars.  I'll admit I laughed, but in the long run I feel a bit of over-serious dialogue is better than the franchise not taking their own story seriously.  What will the YouTube folks have to mock now?

The final twist that Kylo and Jedi Woman aren't brother & sister plus the fact that Luke is dead and Leia's funeral will likely kick off Episode 9 means that the final Skywalker is truly evil and there is none of the family left to redeem him.  After 8 episodes charting the rise and fall of the family it will be left to an outsider to save the universe.  Not what I was expecting and they seemed to have the opportunity to keep Luke alive at the end to help redeem the 3rd generation of Skywalkers.  He had his own issues to work through, but you can now say that the whole family must just be a bad bunch.

Maybe re-watching it in future years will improve my opinion.  It was entertaining and beautifully shot, but unless Episode 9 is more satisfying I can't see it being re-watched as much as the original trilogy.