Its biggest downfall was simply being rushed. Taking time here and there could give it the potential to be up there with IV and V. Sprinting to the end kind of forces you to absorb the emotion and process things afterwards rather than as you're watching it (which I realize is why it was such a different viewing experience than some of the other films), because there's no moments where they take that proverbial breath for you to sit with something big you just saw. Needed some pauses, even to just admire the different locations and soak up the atmosphere, much of which was brilliant. It was just so go, go, go! Weird to say, but this should've been as long as Endgame was, to give those big moments the justice they deserved, as opposed to what felt like skimming, at times.
So when it comes down to it I wanted more. And that's a really good thing. Which is why I hope there is some sort of extended cut of this.
I enjoyed the answers they gave. I was actually satisfied with putting Palps behind everything. Didn't think it would be convincing, but in context it was and it made the plot of the trilogy feel grander and (incredibly!) more cohesive. Bravo. The characters had awesome chemistry, and the exchanges were fantastic. I went from not giving much of a rat's ass about Finn and Poe in TLJ to enjoying the hell out of that bromance again, as I did in TFA.
It makes TLJ better IMO, as 8 to 9 has a mini Luke arc where he loses his way (even if unconvincingly) to find his way back to being the mentor we hoped he would be. Revisiting Acht-to helped to connect to the last instalment and acknowledge what happened there rather than retcon it, and I liked the cool touch of Rey returning in Luke's x-wing (after Luke frickin lifts it from the water, ESB style!).
Can most of us agree that perhaps one of the most cringy parts was force ghost Luke catching the saber out of the fire? Definitely weird and oddly shot/produced (maybe cause of the daytime lighting?) but luckily a small thing.
"It's not a fleet. It's just... people."
Haha, Dunkirk much? Regardless, it was a fist pump moment, even if a predictable one.
That makeshift galaxy fleet was frickin impressive. Probably missed so many details there.
Emperor was creepy. Again, we get to see his flesh get decimated by lightning deflection. Lovely..
Exogol was cool as hell, that music theme is simply chill-inducing. The crowd of Sith worshippers detail was strange, but I would say contributed to the overall creepiness of it. Don't know if I liked that, but whatever. It was an unexpected layer added to the sinister grandeur of the scene.
The use of C3PO and the droids was better than the first two installments, nice for them to have a purpose rather than just stand there and look cute to sell merch. The use of Chewy was better.
Loved the ending at Tatooine as a sort of memorializing of the Skywalker family. She didn't need to call herself one for it to work nicely, but Disney appears to want to spoon feed us the answers to the origin of everybody's surname. Also Rey then technically made out with her (step)brother I suppose then, ala Luke/Leia? Subtle humour by Abrams to bring back that bit of uh..... nostalgia?
Either way, found that amusing.
If they had Anakin and Ben standing there, it would've been perfect. Always room for a Lucas style cut with them edited in.
Anyway, those are my initial scatterbrained thoughts.
The Luke and Leia jedi training flashback is my favourite scene of the trilogy. I absolutely loved that. I probably looked like a child being handed an ice cream cone in my seat there.
They said the next SW film may be in 2022. Might it further the story of these characters, sans the central Skywalker theme? I could see that. I will say I actually want to see more of them together after seeing this, which is not how I felt after the last one.
TROS > TFA >>> TLJ
For this to receive a worse rating than TLJ makes no sense at all. It cleaned things up in a lot of ways I didn't think was possible in 2 plus hours, not sure what critics wanted done differently to give it that fresh rating, at least. Fan service doesn't kill all the fun to be had here.
Will need repeat viewings and time to digest in order to give a well thought out ranking with the rest of the saga.