I hated Force Awakens but this one wasn't too bad (spoilers)

So here we go...

THE GOOD:

Rey was more interesting this time around as she had clear motives, a personality, was flawed, and things didn't always come easily to her. Her big moment at the end was much more satisfying because of this.

Finn is still probably my favorite part of this new series because his arc is unlike anything we've seen in the movies before. He's trying to find where he fits in in all of this, still coming to grips with his fear, and still getting over the manipulation of the First Order. And we finally got a fight between him and Phasma.

I feel like every Star Wars movie should show at least one new locale we haven't seen before. Force Awakens didn't really give any new locations, but I was glad to see the ancient Jedi ruins, the casino, and the salt mines in this one.

It was good to see Yoda again.

The Kylo vs Luke scene was beautifully shot. That really looked gorgeous. There were other shots such as the cruiser ramming the First Order fleet, which looked amazing. I'm pretty glad they replaced JJ Abrams.

Luke's send off was much better than Han's. It had emotional and thematic weight, especially since we got a moment between Luke and Leia before it (as well as a wink to C3PO). I assume we'll see Luke as a force ghost in the next movie.

A lot of people thought Leia's use of the Force looked cheesy. I didn't mind it so much. Using the Force in space to "fly" makes sense and considering she was in a coma for a while after her stunt so she was still in danger.



THE BAD:

Kylo is still not an intimidating villain. He's whiny and gets his ass kicked too much for me to really fear him. Also, I don't get why Luke would find him irredeemable. He saw that there was still good in Vader even though the guy seemed to be pure evil. Kylo is outwordly conflicted, so you'd think Luke would sense something there.

While they at least explained how the First Order came into power, it's still a pretty boring villain group. It's just the Empire 2.0 but with a less interesting Palaptine, Vader, and Grand Moff Tarkin at the helm. Captain Phasma looked cool, but she's dead now.

Leia's conflict with Poe makes no sense as there would be no reason for her not to explain her plan. The secrecy and "betrayal" subplot was pointless and just there for drama. It's made worse by Laura Dern's character randomly coming in and out of the story. The entire subplot slowed the movie down quite a bit.

Rose was annoying at the end. She doesn't want Finn to sacrifice himself, so she rams into his speeder which nearly gets him killed, gets herself severely injured, and now they're both in the middle of a salt field with the First Order right in front of them with no way of immediate escape? What? To make things even more awkward, she kisses Finn (I didn't get a romance vibe) while the Resistance base is getting blasted as if fireworks were going off behind them, Your friends are about to die, kiddo, maybe now isn't the best time for forced romance?

The subtitles that popped up every time a character came on screen were weird and distracting. We don't need a blurb telling us who Luke Skywalker is or explain Princess Leia's message to Obi-Wan. In the case of Leia's message being played, it took away from a scene that would otherwise be very powerful.

All in all, an improvement over Force Awakens.