I got really mixed feelings about this one. There were a lot of things that made med go Magnificent! or that I just liked a lot, but there were probably more that was just poor.
It is pretty clear that they are removing the old generation, so they can go forwards with new characters into a long, profitable franchise. And conceptually, bringing a new generation onstage and retiring the old is not a bad choice. However, the concept being strong does not mean that the executions was. The old guard here are so archetypically powerful, and so deeply embedded in pop culture that you can take the word “pop” out of the sentence. There are quotes associated with them that pretty much everyone in the developed world knows. Whereas the characters replacing them range from poor to pathetic, with the exception of Finn.
It wasn’t going to go over well with any fandom.
Instead of Vader, we got the pathetic Kylo Ren a desperate wannabe continuously failing to get that level in badass he wants so badly. Instead of Tarkin, we get Hux, who veers between maniacal parody villain and comic relief. We get the silly name Snoke, in one of the leftover Voldemort masks to replace the Emperor. In the defense of at least one of these characters it could be said that Kylo Ren is a well realized and well acted character, he is just a tremendous failure as a main villain.
On the good guys side, we got Rey, an annoying authors pet character where they seem to be trying to justify the replacement by making a point of how much better she is than Luke at everything. Poe Dameron who until this movie was just a pretty face, and the actually interesting Finn.
The movie itself still suffers from coming over a bit as a remake, and that spoils some of the twists. “Oh, the Cloud City bit. Well, he is going to betray them.” “Oh, the elevator scene from RotJ. So he’ll kill the emperor understudy after protesting and being impassive for a bit” On the good side it is far more original than the previous movie, where I am hard pressed to remember a single original bit. The movie intro does not make much sense though. So the First Order, after spending the resources to build a planet-sized superweapon and getting that blown up (like always) also had the personnel and resources to build the fleets to take out the rest of the Republic, winning all the battles and steamrollering the resistance ? If they had that kind of resources, financing, industry and manpower, why was there a contest at all? And they did it in the time between the last movie and this one which is basically no time at all? This really blows my suspension of disbelief right out of the water. An intro that just said “We want the setup of The Empire Strikes Back, ok” would have been more honest and less insulting.
The Battle of Hoth-remake starts of strong though, and gets better. The visuals are really good and this is where Poe Dameron starts his magnificent character journey. At the end of the last movie, the Republic and the resistance was the dominant military force in the galaxy, and at the end of this one they are few enough left to fit on the Millennium Falcon. And its all due to Poe Damerons fuckups! Darth Vader would have hissed an awe and taken the day off, because here is a man who can crush a rebellion utterly! Dameron is the sort of overly handsome jock who would torment Star Wars fans in High School and is mysteriously supposed to become someone to cheer for if you put “Fighter jock” in front of his name. His string of screw-ups disobeying orders, not trusting his superiors and outright mutiny completely wreck the resistance. This is some of the most magnificent subverting of expectations I’ve seen in my life! It also justifies him as a character! Also, props to the Vice-Admiral for pointing out that the kind of reflexes that make you an ace fighter pilot does not lead to a personality that stops to think things through. Also, well explained why there is a chase.
Flight of the Leia came out of nowhere. I’d have preferred it if there had been a line about Leia learning basic force use from Luke previously, or if there was force-ghost aid. As a first demonstration of active force use it felt a bit over the top.
The whole sidequest to the new wretched hive seems a bit pointless, but I guess you got to have the Cloud City scene. Cameo was touching. The ability to pop in and out of the chase was a bit weird though. New character Rose Tico was ok. I kind of feel that she is competing with Finn for the “everyman” territory though.
The kamikaze run really should have been Leias Badass Death Scene. If you needed a force-sensitive to make a jump that short-distance accurate it would explain why the rest of the movies won’t be just hyperspace torpedoes. Since we are borrowing liberally from the pervious movies, it could have been a “Use the force, Luke” moment with Anakins force ghost. Father and daughter bonding at last over using the Force to exterminate vast numbers of annoying opponents. I suppose they had already filmed the ground scenes with her in. Phasma was supposed to be the new breakout character like Boba Fett, so I guess she had to go in a similar way. I think she was just one more superficial villain. Although it is a strange criticism when comparing someone to Boba Fett in the original movies.
I suppose the problem is the trend of replacing the original trilogy’s cool, competent villains with a new generation who is anything but.
Rey continues her mission of being better than Luke Skywalker at everything. Less affected by the dark side location, unaffected by the cave test, beating him in combat, lifting the rocks where Luke failed to lift the X-Wing. Oh, and Yoda says she is wiser than Luke and he clearly likes her better. Not that the last is out of character, he has never had much time for any Skywalker and they have proven him right. I felt she would have redeemed her character a lot of she had just gone dark side with Kylo Ren. As a villain her over-the-top-authors-pet would have been tempered by a flaw, and villains are supposed to be powerful. Also, this trilogy needs a competent villain oh so badly.
The Snoke kill was just Ed Wood level bad. Ripped off from RotJ, and without the least explanation of who Snoke were or how he broke the rule of two after two years of frantic fan speculation? No. All we get is that he had Darth Plagueis theme music and wore a piece of Vaders castle. On the good side we do get to see why the Sith have the rule of two. The reveal of Reys parentage is really, really good though. Enjoyed that, Jedi and Sith don’t need a special bloodline. Should maybe have been a flashback, would have made it harder to retcon.
The final battle and Lukes fake out was magnificent, though. Absolutely brilliant. I didn’t catch the tracks in the salt clue, but I did notice the appearance revert to how Kylo Ren last saw him clue.