9 had a real problem of following through on stuff, plus the lightsabers killed me (seriously WTF), and it had the worst character of the entire series (C3PO) but overall it was a competent production IMO, and whoever was in charge of color deserves a raise.
The first few minutes were killer. We see the film gracefully recover from some of the stupid decisions in 8, and actually rather nicely justify its basic concept of Emperor returning from the dead, and the whole thing is positively dripping with tone and awesome cinematography. The lightning illuminating characters, the TDKR Bane--style bass boosted audio when the big bad speaks, it all made perfect sense and set up what was to follow better than any other film in the series. Except... did we really meed a billion Star Destroyers? I mean, it was impossible odds already. What does this really add to the stakes?
Now a few scenes with the resistance and I see the characters falling back in line with who they are supposed to be. Poe is in the pilot seat, with Finn as his gunner--hey, that's exactly the relationship they're supposed to have! Partners with specialized traits that fit together well!
But here we see the first instance of a recurring problem that I felt really detracted from the immersion. They inform us that Rey is not with them. So I'm thinking, uh... what? Didn't she get on the M Falcon with everyone else at the end of 8? What happened to her? And then we see her, on whatever planet that was supposed to be, training and trying to summon Luke or somebody. Or everybody. I dunno. Whatever. Doesn't matter. Point is, I'm too distracted trying to figure out how she got off the ship to even care what she's trying to do.
Because one of the problems with the film is that it establishes things backwards. Only later do we learn that they already got away from the FO offscreen and dropped some people off on mystery planet. The next occurrence comes almost immediately: evidently Rey has been training with Leia? What does Leia know about being a jedi? Only much later do we learn that she trained with Luke years and years ago--long before even episode 7. Not to mention this reveal is also backwards--they tell you she had a lightsaber before they tell you she trained. How did this never come up? Why doesn't she just say during their training session, "I'm glad I can teach you what my brother taught me"?
We immediately find a symbol that, to me, was developed exactly opposite of how it should have been. She has a hard with using rhe lighrsaber, but manages to succeed by using her staff. So to me, I'm thinking, ok here is her non-traditional flavor on the Jedi thing--she is going to be talented with the staff, or maybe the double-blade. More to come.
Now we immediately find ourselves faced against another problem. The lightsabers. I dunno, maybe this was explained in scenes that didn't make the cut, but it absolutely killed me. Rey hands the lightsaber she has been using back to Leia and says "someday I'll be worthy of your brother's lightsaber." Thing is, the lightsaber was blue. Luke had two lightsabers--one green and one blue. This is true. But the blue one exploded into a trillion pieces in episode 8, so why is this one not green? To make matters worse, despite never seeing Leia again (at least onscreen), she somehow regains this lightsaber. I dunno, did I just miss something?
Ok, looks like we're doing the Kylo mask thing yet again. It's been established twice already that he's not cut out to be the next Vader, yadda yadda, why are we piecing this thing back together to make the same point a third time? Whatever.
C3PO becomes a major character, which is the last thing he was meant to be, and proceeds to annoy me more than Jar Jar and Rose combined every time he says anything. Also, why is this former joke character suddenly round? He's always been flat. I don't understand that logic. His quip about his oldest friend was cute but otherwise I couldn't stand him.
After a quick setup of the healing power, which was rather nice, and with Kylo and Rey onscreen together, the film starts to recover. The force fight over Chewy's transport was great, except for major gripe #3: the film refuses to follow through on anything. No sooner have they killed him than they reveal he isn't actually dead. And I'm not sure why Rey can't sense that he's alive immediately. Since she is, you know, being Force Megabadass and all, and this is a basic OT Force trick. I dunno, it's not like I find it completely unreasonable--maybe in her distress she can't focus or something, but it would have been nice to have the clarification. Also not clear why all the sudden later in the movie she can sense it. Whatever, minor complaint.
Now we go to space England, which I really kind of liked, though everything with Poe's background kinda felt like filler. I didn't mind really since it also set up the chick, who I kinda liked. Wait was that Phasma? We never see her again, so... Maybe not? Looked like her though.
I like the expansion of the Force connection thing Rey and Kylo do, and I guess it makes sense without Snoke if you consider that Snoke was doing Emperor's bidding.
Ok so we need a navigation thingy, and hey Kylo is on the way already so--oh wait, we're not doing that. Alright so off to the old Death Star, kinda cool I guess. I like Rey's impatience quite a bit. And hey, she turns out to be right. She fights herself--and what's this? Why does the bad Rey have the staff-like double saber? She's supposed to drop who she was at the start of the trilogy to go full light? I don't understand that at all.
Aw man, Kylo broke the navigation thingy, so much for the last half of the film, now we're back to taking it from Kylo, which was where we were supposed to be in the first place tbh.
Finn shows up just to shout "Rey" and Kylo and Rey fight, Leia sacrifices herself to save them both, which was nice. Rey wins, gets both lightsabers, and then heals Kylo, which was super nice, then she leaves and... lets him keep the saber?
Well, I rather liked the Han/Ben throwback and the way it was resolved toward the good end rather than the evil. And really, this serves as a really nice culmination for the guy in a lot of ways. He gets his self-confidence at the same time that he abandons the dark in favor of the light, which reinforces the hints and stuff given throughout the trilogy that he never really believed in the cause of the First Order, and this was one of the biggest things holding him back. Because deep down he was always a decent guy, he just wanted so badly to be something he wasn't.
So Rey is on Luke planet now, and Luke talks her into saving the galaxy. She gets the navigation thingy and all. I kinda think this was a missed opportunity. She was stuck on the planet with no ship and Luke tells her she has everything she needs. She could have one-upped Luke by actually force teleporting across the galaxy, which would be a nice apprentice surpasses master deal since he only managed Force projection, though in fairness, that would have left the X-Wing we saw in 8 hanging so I guess what they did worked out.
Now Poe repeats some of the stuff whatsherface told him, which was kinda nice as it shows how he has developed the small amount he has. Also nice for him to recruit Finn to be his equal. That's exactly the relationship these two should have.
Alright so Palps still hasn't learned that putting all his eggs in one basket--and that being counting on a Jedi going evil--is a bad idea, but hey, at least they added a nice twist this time with the whole "kill me and I will possess you mwahahah" angle, which had me legit wondering how in the world she was going to get out of this. Of course, she ends up getting out of it by the film refusing to follow up on that. She kills him anyway and it doesn't happen. Not even any sign of a struggle for control of her body or anything.
Now, as with everything Kylo, this scene was great. He comes in and revives her, which Palps has already established is a dark-side-only power. So he's at once acknowledging that dark isn't always evil, in contrast to Palpy, and also performing his last act of darkness. Then, of course, Rey can't return the favor because it's a dark-side power.
And now on Tattooine, Rey is asked for her surname, as before, and I was really hoping for the same answer "it's just Rey." Skywalker kinda worked but it also kinda undercut the very intentional wrapup of all nine main films so I wasn't thrilled with it. Dig the yellow saber, but also annoyed af that it again does not appear to be a double-sided like it should be to reflect Rey's unique take on the Jedi order.
Also, wait, why did Solo even cameo Maul if he wasn't going to even show up here? The big bad was even his master! Whatever.
Honestly, after it ended 7 is a lot lot worse than what I thought of it early on. It wasn't setting up a stage using an old movie as a reference. I feel like from the very beginning, the entire new trilogy was misguided. Honestly, I think 2 was the worst of Star Wars, but now I think 7, 8, and 9 are all just way at the bottom and not worth watching ever again.
At least 2 ended with a pretty cool battle. I remember as a kid everybody was talking about how cool it was for Anakin to duel wield, even though he lost so badly lol. I mean the rest of the movie was just so frustratingly bad, but it's one cool moment that I remember.
I will literally not remember anything from 7, 8, 9 in a few years. Honestly I don't remember anything unique about 7 and can only remember how 8 gave literally nothing for 9 to work with. Honestly, I can't even tell if 9 being bad was 9's own fault, but JJ Abrams was incredibly overrated coming in. He looked like he was competent but ultimately brought nothing to the table.
I can't even believe that 1 or 3 can be worse than 7,8,9, let alone putting 7 over any of the original trilogy.