I haven't read all of the comments in here so I'm sorry if there's some repetition over some of the key points.

Stuff I liked:

1. Everything with Luke and Rey. Everything about that island, truthfully. Luke old and washed and defeated was interesting. Loved all of his interactions with Rey and Chewie and especially Yoda. He got a great send-off, even though I don't think he NEEDED to die.

2. The stuff with Poe Dameron learning about the true meaning of heroism. Though I will say the plan to go into hyperspace was a good one.

3. Fleshing out Kylo Ren. Gave him some proper character development rather than just leaving him as a sniveling alt-right whiner. Yes, he was still a whiner in the end, but at least they established his motivation. Making him want to rule because he's sick of the Jedi, Sith, and the entire old way of doing things was pretty inspired.

4. The death of Snoke. Fucking bad-ass build-up and pay off. This relates to the previous point. Snoke was evil just for the sake of being evil, and this film was about leaving that type of thinking behind.

5. The battle in Snoke's throne room. Probably the best light-saber fight ever.

6. The reveal that the mystery is that there is no mystery.

7. I didn't love the Laura Dern character (saw her twist coming from miles away), but her hyper-spacing the ship through Snoke's command ship was also really fucking bad-ass.

What I didn't like:

1. The vast majority of the casino planet side mission. Really wasn't necessary and most of the characters didn't serve a great purpose in the long run. I'll grant that the escape on the back of the horse was cool and it further established that BB-8 isn't to be fucked with. Also, I like Del Toro. Hell, I even like Del Toro in this movie, but he wasn't needed here. Yes, I get that they haven't addressed class in the Star Wars universe before, but this was heavy-handed even for a Star Wars. I rolled my eyes at the idea of the Resistance and the First Order being "pawns in the same game" for the rich ruling class. And the idea that "The Resistance lining the pockets of the rich arm's dealers means that they're really as bad as the First Order" was PG-13 Game of Thrones shit. This series doesn't really need the "shades of grey" thing. Especially after they spent most of the film's length defining what it means to be really good and really evil. And how being good can involve failure and being evil can come from a place of understandable intentions. I also hope that Johnson's new trilogy doesn't revolve around the stable kids on that planet.

2. Finn's kamakazie mission that gets aborted at the last second by Rose. They'd already hammered in the fucking point about "what it REALLY means to be a hero" about half a dozen times by that point. Hell, his fight with Phasma already established that he was true-born Rebel Scum. But they didn't need him trying to sacrifice himself and then Rose coming in and yelling "MESSAGE!!!!!!" Especially if they weren't going to kill her.


But as a whole, a thoroughly enjoyable experience. And I am very excited for Episode IX, especially since, yes, I have no idea where they go from here with the Resistance.

I will go to see it again. Saw it last night in a mulitplex near where I live, and now I'd like to see it in a nice old school theater around here.