game of two halves really for me:
Pros:
*Was nice to have the little drama of conflict between Luke and Rei
*I liked the main plot of the movie with the Rebels on the run from the Empire...even if it wasnt necissarily the best use of the movies time...
*The Direction was nice and solid with some really nice set pieces...
*Equally the Choreography of the fight scenes were great (If not a little over reliant on CGI to help smooth over the cracks
*The Cine was gorgeous...though again maybe just a touch too over reliant on CG to help smooth over reshoots
*Adam Drivers really coming into his own and is arguably the best part of this movie...whereas I found him maybe a touch too emo in the first film...here he's starting to take on the rolea lot more seriously...
*Lukes final scenes were very enjoyable if not a touch predictable
Cons:
*while I like the main plot drive of the movie...my god is it padded...it should have been a final act race to the planet...instead its the whole movie more or less...
*It feels tonally uneven with the casino bits being maybe a little too remeniscent of the prequel movies style...theres also a large number of jokes in this that just fell absolutely flat...I think they were trying to go for Marvel humour and it just didnt work for me.
*Leia did a space float *Thumbs down*
* some of the CG animals looked waaaaaay to video gamey for my personal taste
*Some of the lighting used in the green screen elements wernt 100%...it took me out of the movie because I was just sat there going "Oh they arnt on the island any more they're filming in a studio backdrop somewhere...
*The final sequence with finn racing towards the death cannon was in my opinion totally ruined by how they chose to resolve it...
*While the Yoda Cameo was welcome...it was all too short, too meaningless and felt a bit out of character for me...
*It just generally to me didnt feel like a movie...it felt like a load of scenes sort of shoved together with the hope that the 3rd film could untangle it...
Neutral:
*The Porgs...I mean...I dont think there as cute as everyone is telling me they are...but they're better than the Ewoks in my opinon and they had one of the funnier moments of the film (With Chewbacca trying to eat them)
I dunno...I think if I judged this film just on the broad strokes I'd have probably come away liking it more...its the smaller details that have generally made this film a "Wobbler" for me...it's still a lot of fun...but I dont think it was as good as "Force awakens" which in and of itself I had problems with as it was just a rip of New hope...
I think if i had to order them at this point I'd probably go:
5,4,7,8,3,6,2,1 (With the holiday special fitting in either on the lower end if im sober or the upper end if im not) xD