Finally saw this last night! I have a lot to say and no where else to say it, so I'm gonna just vomit it out now. I will say that overall, I really liked it, but there were points that rubbed me wrong. I'll start with the bad and get that out of the way. It may seem like I didn't like it at first, but lemme get this out of my system before going off on what I did like.
The Bad
Harrison Ford - Easily the worst part of the movie. Look, I love Han Solo, but Jesus Christ man, if he didn't want to play the character again he could have just ignored the dump truck of money they likely backed up to his house and said "Thanks, but I'll pass". He phoned it in probably 90% of his screen time. He was god damned awful and I felt nothing for his character in the way I was supposed to. Where was the emotion when it came to his son? I never got a glimpse into the pain he felt from what happened in the past, nor did he seem like he carried any of it with him into his on-screen self. He was just a crochety old man, and when he died, I felt nothing for him. That's Ford's fault. There was some nuance to his performance I appreciated, but I'll touch on that later.
Plot rehashing - Naive-yet-force-strong kid/young adult on a desert planet is thrust into adventure? I get where they're going with this, even if we've kind of done it twice already. A neo-Cantina/Jabba's Palace party scene when they go see Han's tiny-yet-wise goggle-eyed friend? OK, she's not quite Yoda, so I guess it's different enough. But the main battle surrounding the destruction of another Death Star? Even the movie makes fun of this in the battle planning scene. Would have been kind of nice if the good guys didn't manage to blow it up if they were going to go that route. You could make the argument that the movie isn't really about this conflict, and you'd be right, but it's there to provide a greater sense of threat. The stakes are supposed to feel high, but instead, it just feels like we've been here before. And we have -- twice.
Sudden expertise - Kylo Ren's introduction establishes him as a powerhouse. Dude immediately does stuff with the force we've never seen and with seeming ease. So why, then, is Finn able to fight so well against him? For that matter, why is Finn so quickly an expert with a lightsaber? Aren't they supposed to be difficult to wield? I guess it's possible he had some sort of training we don't know about with sword, but to go toe to toe with Kylo just seemed off color. That said, Rey all of the sudden being able to sword fight like a champion, even if Kylo is hurt, was even worse. They establish that she's proficient with a staff, but a lightsaber is not at all the same thing. Moving past that, she knows how to fly the Falcon, and almost as well as Solo? And, on top of that, she just starts kind of guessing at what her force powers might be? I don't mind that she was kind of discovering them as she went, but there were more subtle ways to go about it. It was just overall kind of hamfisted in this regard.
Pandering - There was a LOT of this, and it was kind of surprising. Too many "Hey look, it's that guy!" moments or "Hey, remember when this happened?" type spots. I don't mind a few, but this was a bit much. I won't belabor this point, I just hope they got it out of their system here.
The Good
The new characters - Can't say enough good things about the new cast. Let's start with Finn. I love the idea of a Storm Trooper gone rogue. Great concept. But what I really liked about him was how he was both cool and incredibly awkward. They nailed that whole guy-out-of-his-element feeling, where you could see he didn't quite know how to interact with people the way a guy who grew up only training as a soldier would. Rey was pretty great, too. She's intelligent and capable, plus she seemingly has an emotional core we're going to have revealed to us as these movies go on. BB-8 was surprisingly good in the R2 role. But the character I'm most excited to see grow and change is Kylo Ren.
Kylo Ren - Dude gets his own section here. It's possible they're going to get right with him everything they got wrong with Anakin. They establish his power and darkness right away in the opening scene where he stops a laser, interrogates Poe while it's frozen, orders the village to be slaughtered, and doesn't let the laser go until you've probably forgotten about it. Then they show him struggling with the light-vs-dark and you get an actual sense that there's a deeper conflict. The interrogation scene with him and Rey is particularly good, as you can see his insecurities front and center. Finally giving into the dark side and killing Han actually means something because they took the entire movie showing you how hard it was to make this decision. Having a character give into the darkness means something when you can watch the descent and root against and/or for it. And the best part is, thanks to his established emotional complexity, it's still not clear he's completely evil. Great work on this character.
A sense of mystery - One of the mysteries I don't see people talking about much is Finn, and how Kylo Ren notices Finn in the village, knew later he was the defector, and then after that, he and Snoke talk about there being "an awakening". Those feel too directly connected. I honestly think Finn is going to end up being force capable, and it might explain his sudden proficiency with a lightsaber. But the elephant in the room is Rey, and who her parents might be. And to the writers' credit, they didn't clearly establish who it is, leaving clues to two schools of thought at the very least. Which is awesome. There were moments where Han looks at her with fatherly regret and/or pride in the Falcon. And just how did she know how to pilot the damn thing so well, and with no training? And the scene where Han and the little orange goggles/Yoda lady were talking where she asked "Who's the girl" was telling. Plus then you have Kylo Ren being somehow aware of her, and he's definitely a Solo. But then they allude that she might be Luke's, with the lightsaber calling to her, and when she turns the lightsaber on, playing Luke's theme. And her character parallels to Luke in general are maybe a clue. It was masterful. Then we have Snoke. Who is it? Is it a Sheev clone? Is it Darth Jar Jar? Is it the Trade Federation aliens? The villains as a whole are a good mystery. Who is that with Kylo Ren in Rey's vision? That's a big group. What is their history, what are they up to? They're not Sith? Did the Sith somehow survive or are they eliminated? It's nice to finally not know things again in the Star Wars universe.
A sense of adventure - Finn's journey across the desert and subsequent arrival at the watering pool had weight. Rey having never seen such a green planet before came across well, and the location there seemed full of history, even if we don't get to actually learn about it. The creatures in Solo's freighter were alien and otherworldly in a good way. The whole movie was about trying to locate Luke Skywalker and fighting over a map piece that contained his whereabouts, and then in the end...
Luke - That final scene was powerful. They have so much potential with him returning here. And I get the feeling Hamill actually wants to be part of this movie, unlike Ford. The Yoda parallels are strong, with the failure and self-imposed exile, but I'm praying they find a way to have him redeem himself that doesn't involve dying for a cause.
Overall, I really liked it. They played it kind of safe, but I feel like they were laying the groundwork in a familiar fashion to hopefully go into a new territory. I love that there's so much I don't know going forward, and I'm glad the new cast of characters is so compelling. I have hope for this franchise for the first time in 15 years.
