For me I'd rank it about 5th (inc Rogue One).

 

8/10 or more

01. Ep 7

02. Ep 5

03. Ep 4

04. Rogue One

05. Ep 8

06. Ep 6

---

5/10 or less

07. Ep 3

08. Ep 1

09. Ep 2

Where were the big plot twists, shocks and controversial parts that people keep talking about?

Luke died

but...surely something like that was expected? It’s not like a core character didn’t die in the last one...

 

The whole film felt like a lot of happenings to cover up a lack of actual story. Because I kind of felt like the story had not really progressed by the end. Some of the humour felt very un-Star Wars too me too, it didn’t quite land.

 

There were still things I enjoyed of course. Rose was cute, Luke’s ending was well handled and Laura Dern’s moment was clearly the best part of the film and will go down as one of Star Wars’ most iconic moments. I do think The Force Awakens was better, despite being less ambitious, and think Rogue One is better than both. The worse thing about this one is that it ended with me not really caring what happens next which is very different to how I felt after TFA.

Where were the big plot twists, shocks and controversial parts that people keep talking about?

Luke died

but...surely something like that was expected? It’s not like a core character didn’t die in the last one...

 

I mean there wasn't an OMG one like Han's death in TFA but I'm kinda glad as the parallels with Empire... would've been all too obvious, and there were a lot of things that didn't play out like I expected

like I didn't think Snoke would be killed off that quickly (not that I'm shedding any tears, he was a very disappointing character overall, essentially Darth Sidious in all but name and wasn't really given any development, same with Captain Phasma, though more a shame as that was a brilliant actress), I also didn't think Kylo would be as erratic, I was never quite sure which way he'd turn and I still don't know going into the last episode which is the best you can ask for with a character like that. He was excellently portrayed overall, and a highlight, plus Rey's parents...I liked that they built that up just to say they were nobody special[

 

 

I really enjoyed it overall, if TFA was essentially a remake of A New Hope, this was very much it's own film and much like Empire... exploring the new characters, and all were pretty excellently done and made me warm to them a lot more. Kylo as mentioned was the highlight, but Rey was also great

(and like Kylo, I honestly thought she may turn as well, did really hit home that she has a lot of traits of the Dark Side as well.

The absolute best though was Mark Hamill as Luke, and it all felt very natural as well as unexpected. He was always my least favourite of the original trio, but he was better than ever here, old and cynical certainly suits him better, every scene with him and Rey was amazing

and the Master Yoda cameo was pretty well done too!

(on the subject, Carrie Fisher was ofc. also phenomenal, if sadly sidelined a bit).

 

It wasn't perfect - Finn and Rose's storyline didn't actually add much at all in the end, though the planet did look amazing, and even the spacefights weren't that engaging next to Rey and Kylo's storyline - but I think not being not being what you'd expect from Star Wars ultimately worked in it's favour as they've very much took the essentials of the originals and made them their own. I wouldn't say it's the best Star Wars film ever, but a good deal better than The Force Awakens and certainly still up there with the original trilogy.

 

 

 

Soooo...

 

 

Is Hux actually Snoke/he made Snoke as a distraction/to disguise himself so he can keep an extra eye on Kylo? Snoke's death was a bit too "oh. That's it". There's definitely more to Hux I think/hope.

 

Not going to lie I was pretty disappointed with it. From the reviews I thought I was witnessing something amazing, but it was just average. Some useless subplots scattered around, I felt the 2.5 hours runtime.

The Force Awakens was a really good starting point, but so much of that film just makes for no purpose now. Snoke? Yeah he is just some random guy that controls an army and has power over everyone. Rey's parents? Yep she is actually not special. Captain Phasma? Might have well not even made such a fuss over the character as she was useless.

I preferred The Force Awakens. I will agree that guessing certain characters' motives was edge of your seat stuff, but I still did think lots of things were quite predictable.

 

 

 

I think there's more to this Snoke story, which will be answered in the next movie. There is no way he would die just like that if he is supposed to be the most powerful thing or whatever. Rey's parents storyline, again, I FEEL like there's more, but like Chez, I like the idea that they actually aren't anyone important to this story. So I wouldn't be too mad if they didn't extend that further.

 

 

This seems to have split fans right down the middle. Personally I think (not anybody here) people are being WAY too harsh on it just for being "a little disappointing" but it's really not as amazing as the critics or other half of the fans make it out to be. I'm very much in the middle of those tbh.

 

It lacked a huge talking point moment and it was flawed, but I don't think it was flawed enough to the point they couldn't/won't rectify and explain these things in the final part of this trilogy. It's bugging me that there are fans putting this on the same level as the prequels. :arrr: :lol:

I think there's more to this Snoke story, which will be answered in the next movie. There is no way he would die just like that if he is supposed to be the most powerful thing or whatever. Rey's parents storyline, again, I FEEL like there's more, but like Chez, I like the idea that they actually aren't anyone important to this story. So I wouldn't be too mad if they didn't extend that further.

 

 

This seems to have split fans right down the middle. Personally I think (not anybody here) people are being WAY too harsh on it just for being "a little disappointing" but it's really not as amazing as the critics or other half of the fans make it out to be. I'm very much in the middle of those tbh.

 

It lacked a huge talking point moment and it was flawed, but I don't think it was flawed enough to the point they couldn't/won't rectify and explain these things in the final part of this trilogy. It's bugging me that there are fans putting this on the same level as the prequels. :arrr: :lol:

 

I can easily see why it’s halved the fan base. I loved it because it felt fresh to me. Loved TFA but it lacked originality whereas they really took this one to new places. I also agree with your spoilered part about there being more to come with those issues but quite frankly for me it was a breath of fresh air just having so many unpredictable moments in the film.

 

 

I think the biggest issue for me, aside from Phasma being forever crap, was that they didn’t know what to do with Finn. His and Rose’s side story really was filler that could have been removed to make the film half an hour shorter. Though having said that, I still really enjoyed the sequence.

 

I saw it last night, summary, I'm more interested in the non-mainline Star Wars films if they're just going to rehash the original trilogy with up to date storytelling tropes. I felt really satisfied after Rogue One last year, I didn't with this.

 

Because this was very similar to Empire (rebels escaping including a showdown on an ice planet, force-sensitive hero stays on backwater wild planet a lot of the film and has visions) but with differences. But those differences didn't really feel fresh, more like a ton of 'aha' moments,

no, the kooky Star Wars rebel plan to knock out evil weapons doesn't work, no, the woman presented as a hateable character is actually incredibly heroic (I thought she had it right from the start even though I could tell where they were trying to telegraph it), Death Star battering ram out of the arse, Luke doesn't die in a Kenobi fashion, Snoke suddenly gets offed. The one twist I liked, I'm ambivalent on Snoke as he was shown to be a bit dull prior to that, but the one I did like was that Rey's parents are no one special. Because that's exactly what I expected and wanted from her as it gets the narrative a bit more away from the Skywalker clan

.

 

Mark Hamill gave a hell of a performance, I'll give him that, and same for Laura Dern and Domnhall Gleeson, and Rose was a really nice new character I was caring about. But it's still cutting all too close to the story beats of the first trilogy and the numerous twists just serve to make me expect them and make it seem to me like the writers think they're being terribly clever.

I think there's more to this Snoke story, which will be answered in the next movie. There is no way he would die just like that if he is supposed to be the most powerful thing or whatever. Rey's parents storyline, again, I FEEL like there's more, but like Chez, I like the idea that they actually aren't anyone important to this story. So I wouldn't be too mad if they didn't extend that further.

 

 

This seems to have split fans right down the middle. Personally I think (not anybody here) people are being WAY too harsh on it just for being "a little disappointing" but it's really not as amazing as the critics or other half of the fans make it out to be. I'm very much in the middle of those tbh.

 

It lacked a huge talking point moment and it was flawed, but I don't think it was flawed enough to the point they couldn't/won't rectify and explain these things in the final part of this trilogy. It's bugging me that there are fans putting this on the same level as the prequels. :arrr: :lol:

 

 

I am fine with Ren being the main villian as it's actually a nice change to see a bad guy that is not purely evil and is still clearly conflicted. But Snoke just feels cheap - it just feels a bit like a massive FU to everyone that has theorised about it for 2 years.

 

Also I am sure Rey's parents are nobody. They hinted at it with the mirror scene and then the ending with the kid using the force, I think it is meant to hint that there are just people out there that can use the force. Again it is a cheap twist.

 

 

I know loads of people warmed to Rose, but for me she was just pointless. Her whole storyline was pointless along with Finn.

So much infact I don't know why they didn't kill him off? He literally had no purpose in the film.

 

I'm not the biggest Star Wars fan at all but I saw this on Thursday and it was SUCH an EVENT. Fan boys can pick it apart until the cows come home (I'm the same with Doctor Who - sci-fi seems to bring out the perfectionist in us), but the whole thing felt so big and gripping, and there were a couple of twists I would never had guessed.

The reviews for this are ranging drom fanboy squealing to downright awful.

 

When even sycophantic reviewers are saying it is a letdown/ disappointment, you know somethin's up. I never liked any moviex just commercial crap really, but I've even seen fans criticise it. One said people yelled, f*** off, at the cinema at the reveal of something.

I wasn't the biggest fan of this either. I did have a good time watching it still and I appreciated the unpredictability of it but some of the tone was just weird and I'd probably rank this as my least favourite main series Star Wars movie yet (yes, I actually like the prequels. I suppose it's because they were my childhood Star Wars memories rather than the original trilogy). For every excellent Laura Dern lightspeed and Rey/Ren throne room scenes, there were silly Luke drinking green titty milk and

SuperLeia flying through space like a superhero scenes that just ruined it for me. I get that they wanted to show how she has force powers too but surely there was a better way of showing this, perhaps she could have moved the rocks at the end instead of Rey saving the day? On a side note, Yoda looked super weird too but he had some really touching one liners and I loved that he appeared in this.

 

 

Also a little disappointed that they

killed such a fan favourite (Admiral Ackbar) off screen. I would have liked him to have the big hero Laura Dern moment actually, it was tough to actually feel much empathy for her seeing as she'd been introduced as a bit of a bitch and then killed off within half an hour?

 

 

T Boy is totally right that the Finn story was such a waste of time and a bit of a mickey take to have sit through that whole side plot for them to have achieved nothing and then we ended up getting a forced romance at the end which was a bit of a kick in the teeth. It almost felt like they had already written the main storyline and forgot they had to shoehorn in Finn somewhere just because he was in the first movie :/

 

This does sound like I kind of hated it but I did have a good time watching it, it probably could have been cut down a bit and some of the jokes that did not land should've been worked on a bit harder but it still had its fair share of awesome battle scenes and thrilling twists which made it a decent instalment overall. I'm very excited for the final chapter of the trilogy too as I have no idea where they're going to take it :w00t:

I saw it again and yeah, I’m kinda just whelmed, there’s lots of good stuff in there to keep it well above the prequels in terms of overall quality, but it feels like one of the most pointless Star Wars films in terms of plot, even moreso than the prequels. I get the critiques of The Force Awakens, but I just think it was a lot more organic and focused.

 

By the way Josh,

I don’t think Yoda looked weird I think it’s just that they based his image off the puppet from the original films instead of The CGI Yoda from the prequels

 

By the way Josh,

I don’t think Yoda looked weird I think it’s just that they based his image off the puppet from the original films instead of The CGI Yoda from the prequels

 

I could be mistaken but I think I remember reading somewhere that they did actually use a puppet mainly (with a mixture of CGI)!! It looked fine in the 1970s with the lack of technology back then but I did find it looked rather jarring and fake here. I appreciated his cameo a lot so I'm glad they included it but I do feel like the design could have been worked on a bit more personally.

 

After a three day period of digesting it all and a second viewing tonight, I still maintain that this film was great. Jarring things like

Yoda’s look, Snoke’s death and Rey’s parentage reveal and Luke’s death

seem quite natural in the second viewing. I’m so glad they tried something different for this one. I can’t judge all reactions but I think a lot of the fan backlash is because the film doesn’t go how they thought it would. I’m quite glad it didn’t. I have no idea where 9 will go and it excites me greatly.

I watched this yesterday and have given it 24 hours to allow a reasoned response but I can totally understand why this is getting polarising reactions among audiences as it really feels like they made a film that just doesn't care what you want and does its own thing.

 

 

Spoilers will follow

 

 

It really feels a bit like 2 separate ideas struggling for dominance. On the one hand there's some excellent ideas going into the connection and conflicts within Rey and Ben, backed up by a sublime performance from Mark Hamill - a great turn from Laura Dern that keeps you guessing just long enough, and a rebel fleet desperately trying to flee the First Order. All of these ideas have so much potential and possible outcomes and yet too much is squandered by a seemingly overwhelming desire to add humour (which only lands half the time), cute or 'funny' aliens and a Finn sub-plot that was more annoying than interesting and failed to make much of its arms dealer criticisms.

 

There are a number of ridiculous plot contrivances and moments of poor narrative where things seemed cut for time at the expense of cohesion -

 

Where exactly did Chewbacca go after he dropped of Rey? Just twiddling his thumbs while Hux hunted down his mates and waiting for his yeehah moment?

Why weren't more questions asked after Rey has seemingly slaughtered Snoke and his guards yet walked off without killing Kylo Ren?

Is Snoke just the next in a long line of Star Wars villains that everyone assumes are important but really aren't? (I'm looking at you Dooku, Grievous, Maul, the criminally discarded Boba Fett)

Rey's a Mary Sue huh? Just as well Ridley sells it so well as that's terrible writing (I really hope Ren was lying about her lineage or that sucks)

What was the point of Maz being in it?

Why even bother with Captain Phasma?

Why deny Finn what would have been a genuinely brilliant, emotionally impactful, heroic death in favour of a forced romance?

BB8 isn't a character, he essentially just a joke factory (even if he is charming) and a 'get out of jail free' card, since he can do or fly anything.

R2-D2 had the best lines but not enough screen time.

Del Toro hamming it up

And worst of all Leia's death/not death was the worst thing in a Star Wars film ever. It's either trolling or a cop out.

 

 

 

It wasn't all bad though

 

 

Ridley, Hamill, Fisher, Driver and Dern are all excellent in their roles and make the most of an average script.

It does keep you guessing, mostly because it feels like it is on the verge of tossing a to decide the ending.

If anything is red on the screen it has been given extra attention and looks great.

Rey and Ben's chemistry

Crystal foxes

The final battle

Rey's trip down the hole

Luke

Luke/Kylo's flashback POVs

Space battles are always fun

The conflict and doubt that exists in both Rey and Kylo. And Luke

 

 

Overall the good outweighed the bad but it felt rather like a greatest hits album from your favourite band where every track has been re-recorded, or as my mate said 'like being smacked over the head by your favourite album'. The opening crawl might as well have said -

you remember Empire Strikes Back? Well, we've sort of remixed it with Return Of The Jedi too. We've got our heroes fleeing the Empire, Hoth 2.0, Luke is Yoda and Yoda is Obi Wan, some cute funny aliens, and Rey is Luke while Emperor/Snoke being off by his pupil. And as a bonus we have the Falcon flying through a trench that looks exactly like the inside of the 2nd Death Star.

 

 

Overall a solid if flawed entry in the series that fails to capitalise on the excitement generated by The Force Awakens or the sheer joy of that and Rogue One. It's a shame in that it doesn't quite feel like it has the confidence to forge it's own path despite really wanting to. A trait that was forgiveable in TFA (here's everything you loved again), necessary in Rogue One (even though that is bold enough to decide its a war film as much as it is Star Wars), here becomes a handicap.

 

 

But all in all I'm putting this above Phantom Menace and Attack Of The Clones, and on a par with Revenge Of The Sith.

 

Basically, a storyline of being marooned in space because you’re out of gas is a very boring plot.

I'm adding a plus point as I've just realised somebody does in fact say 'I have a bad feeling about this' and it's genius

I think everyone has already said my thoughts!!

 

 

The Rey/Kylo/Luke stuff were by far the best bits of the film and I really was especially gripped by the Snoke scene, it was interesting to see good v bad team up against each other! It was all very character driven and I liked how they were referring to Kylo as Ben. Kylo came across as a bit too much as a moody teenager for me in TFA but, even though he essentially still was here, he was very strong in this film.

 

The problem was that you can't make a Star Wars film just based on that and it meant scrambling for a plot for all the other characters, for which there wasn't really one. Perhaps it succumbed to the usual problems of being the middle part but the ship trying to evade the First Order by staying in the same place is just really not that interesting, it's the type of plot that should take up about 15 minutes, if that. Whereas The Force Awakens felt non-stop as you were taken one place after another, this was perhaps the total opposite. It was very much a contained story and I don't think it was of the better for it. Finn/Rose's journey just felt added in to try and make things more exciting and see a new world just for the sake of it. The fact that it ended up having no bearing on the actual plot is just a big mistake when Finn is meant to be the second main character of the new trilogy.

 

I'm sure it has been said that Captain Phasma was to have a much bigger role in this film. I know she doubled her lines, but that's only from 4 to 8. As much as I love Gwendoline, I feel as though they act within the film that it's like an A-list star playing her. It was exciting when Kylo killed Snoke but I do agree that I wish they'd spent more time explaining more about him, like we don't know a single thing about him, he could have been a radioactive parsnip for all I care. Conversely though, I did like the reveal of Rey's parents. It helps open up the universe more as it's all been quite self-contained so far, especially with making the villain Han/Leia's son. An irritating bit for me though was the Millenium Falcon going through yet another narrow gap, it was a bit 'here we go again'.

 

Visually, it looked beautiful, particularly the emphasis on red. This helped the whole Kylo/Rey/Snoke scene standout for me even more, I loved it! The end planet was beautiful and I guess it helps show blood without actually having to show blood?

 

I can't remember if Carrie had finished filming or not but it was a bit frustrating for her to be out for half the film when I'd hoped she was going to be given more to do after her smaller appearance in TFA. Poor Admiral Ackbar casually killed off screen too!! Chewbacca was also very much sidelined (although I guess Han not being there doesn't help). Luke didn't get as much of a big part as I was expecting either so it definitely felt as though Rian wanted to focus on the new characters and had to put up with the older ones.

 

 

I do hope the next one is more extravagant again and has more plot to it. This was a solid entry, but very underwhelming.

 

Also, I'm a really a sucker for their creations made purely for marketing: porgs & BB8 >>>>>

I went to see this on Wednesday with my family and we all came out of it with wildly differing opinions of the film.

 

For me I thought it was one of the worst films I've seen in some time. I'm not a particularly huge fan of the franchise so I'm not bothered about the treatment of characters etc, instead the film committed the sin of just being a utter bore-fest for at least half of its runtime. The bits on board the ships were just like a really bad Star Trek movie, the bit at the casino was just the token couple of characters go off to a bar to find someone section that seems to be an excuse in every film to just show a load of different alien creatures that never appear again. I agree with everyone else here that the interesting bit was

the sections around Luke/Kylo/Rey and the battle of minds and emotions that they all went through

- I feel the film would have been substantially better if that would have been played out in full (and following on from the end of the last film after all) before everyone being reunited and the whole ship stuff happening afterwards, the other characters would have felt part of the story then... there is a good film somewhere within all of the elements, the codebreaker bits just needed to

be played out and have them succeed before being caught.

Also, I know you have to suspend belief in these things but that section where

Fin & Rose were about to be executed, then the ship tore the other ship apart, then cut back to Fin & Rose remaining in the centre whilst every single one of the hundreds upon hundreds of foes had pretty much been decimated

was just ridiculous.

 

As I mentioned, others with me had differing views... my mum in particular loved it and said she enjoyed everything about it, Mr D* thought it was passable enough too...