So...... a mixed bag.
It felt like a film of two halves.
The dividing line was the
imperial First Order attack on Maz Kanata's castle.
Everything up to this point, I really liked.
- The pacing was good
- The dialogue was quite good too; introduced the characters well, progressed their relationships, hinted at their origins, and even had some comedic one-liners.
- The plot was mostly believable
- The action sequences were impressive while still being meaningful.
If the entire film had been like that, I think the film would have been a resounding success. (8.5/10)
The 2nd half....... urg, it had lots of problems.
- The pacing was far too quick, like they were trying to cram a 3 hour story into a 2 hour movie. (a flaw that Episode IV possessed too)
- Character interactions were forced. Characters who'd known each other for just minutes of screen time, and had no joint experiences, were distraught/consoling one-another.
- Action sequences became ungrounded, and bombastic - serving no purpose other than to fill the 'space explosions' quota & progress the plot
- The Mega-deathstar. Wow, what a mess. A contrived plot device that was poorly explained, cheesy as hell, and ill-fitting with the 1st half of the movie.
- Carrie Fisher might as well have not been in the film - she served no purpose whatsoever.
- The final scene(s) made little sense; for all the
alliance resistance had gone through in acquiring the location of Luke, they send the bucket of bolts alone, manned by a walking carpet & no-name scavenger from Jakku?
Obviously this is explainable given Leia's knowledge of who Rey really is (though I'm sure the rest of the resistance leaders might contest such a decision), but this reasoning hasn't yet been explained to the audience.
That's not to say I hated the 2nd half - it had some redeeming parts.
-Rey's character development was good (though the mindtrick was a little far fetched).
-
death was good
Spoiler
(though incredibly obvious from the moment Leia said 'bring him back to us')
-The saber duel was good, though again a little far fetched.
2nd half gets a 5/10.
Biggest surprise;
Harrison Ford didn't suck!
After the latest Indiana movie, and that crumby "It's true. All of it." scene they put in the trailers, I didn't expect much from him.
As it turns out, he was one of, if not
the, strongest character.
Favorite characters;
Han Solo, Rey, BB-8, Maz Kanata.
Finn..... I'm not completely sold on. His dialogue wasn't the best, and he seemed under-developed.
Poe Dameron..... seemed rather pointless to me. He was the Biggs Darklighter of the movie. (though written into the plot in such a way that he couldn't be as easily cut out as he was from Episode 4)
Overall, a 7/10.
If Episode 8 follows the trends of Episode 7's 1st half, we're in for a treat.