[Coach]

My thoughts in no particular order.

It's pretty obvious the should have just had JJ do all three, or had him write the 2nd one at least. You can tell this one was two smashed together. Had there been a middle movie that actually tried to advance the overall character plots towards what the conclusion ended up being, you could have a had an interesting story where Rey's possible darkside turn is much more fleshed out and possibly actually happens, and Ben turns earlier and maybe has to earn the trust of the other Rebels to save/turn Rey.

Disappointed with Palpatine being involved at all. She could have been his grandaughter still (another thing that could have been more flushed out in a middle movie), but I don't see why he himself had to return. Would have rather seen a force ghost, if anything at all. I don't want to see old man electric shocks and sky beams, I want an epic lightsabre dual and that just didnt really happen.

The kiss was lame. Mostly because their connection just wasn't well built. In reality they really didnt spend like any actual time together. If they had been able to play with their dark/light turns earlier and built up real tension between them, the climax could have been noted epic lightsabre battle with real stakes.

Just don't really care about Finn. His story lines are super lame, and his affection for Rey ends up going absolutely nowhere. It's too bad because I liked him in TFA, but he just ultimately falls flat.

Poe is an enjoyable character, but again has no real arc as a person or in personal relationships. Supposed to go from hot headed pilot to General, but really you don't notice much of a difference in him. A middle movie that better built his and Leia's connection (instead of making her sleep and replacing her with Holdo for no reason) would have helped this.

I liked how much Leia was available for this film. I don't know how they did it, but they did a wonderful job giving her plenty of time and love. And Chewy had a nice moment of sadness for her which was nice. The way they did her death with the connection with Ben and his vision of Han was nice, but again a full movie of better building Ben's love for his mother would have helped this have more connection.

Wedge Cameo was awesome.

I agree with Hemi above, the whole rise of the First Order and their control of the galaxy basically nerfed all the original character's efforts from the get go. And the whole "the Emperor's been building legions" thing was just too out there for me. Like... how? With what? From that cave some how? Just not a well built threat I guess. Would have been cooler to maybe see Ben/Rey turning and building a evil resistance against a newly formed Republic, only to be turned back.

TL;DR - Needed a better second movie that cared about the story of the characters. One sin off for Wedge.