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Sep 21, 2018Nigiri rated this title 1.5 out of 5 stars
Visually stunning and full of surprises... and that is the only positive feedback I can muster. Most of those surprises are totally unsatisfying and often hard to believe when you have a minute to think them through. So much potential was wasted (this movie spits on and laughs at both the Original Trilogy and The Force Awakens) and the future of the Saga is now very much in doubt. There are many specifics I could list, but that would take forever so I will mostly address one issue. SPOILERS - READ NO FURTHER IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT It has been claimed that this movie is dominated by "strong female characters" and this is further used as an excuse to attack anyone who dislikes the movie by calling them sexist. I would counter that this movie is NOT dominated by strong female characters. Let's briefly examine the women of this movie: *The Bomber gunner: She seemed like a strong female character, but she died in scene 1 with no lines. *The A-wing pilot: Also probably strong, but she is on screen for about 10 seconds total before dying. *Captain Phasma: Criminally wasted. She's cool, but she has like 90 seconds of screen time and then dies in a weirdly cheep way. *Leia: In the original trilogy she WAS strong. Now she is is wishy-washy, is needlessly outshined by other characters, and she only uses her inexplicably-epic force powers to help herself, never anyone else (even when they were trapped and needed someone to move rocks). *Rose: Prone to radically unpredictable mood swings, terrible at focusing on the big picture, has deeply strange priorities (vandalize a town when your friends are running for their lives, and rescue animals instead of children??), her last act in the movie is basically treasonous, and her last line is one of the most ridiculously-out-of-place lines ever. Finn WAS trying to save those he loves, and this is STAR WARS. *Vice Admiral Haldo: Perhaps the worst military commander in any fictional story I have ever consumed. She senselessly belittles and alienates the man who saved the entire Resistance twice in the last 12 hours, she is secretive in a way all but guaranteed to breed mistrust and destroy morale, her command philosophy appears to be "shut off your brain and obey" which is essentially how the bad guys operate, and her only positive act showed the filmmaker's total misunderstanding of how hyperspace works and pretty much ruins all future space battles. *Rei: Ok, finally we have a genuinely strong female character who has a major part to play. I also find her likable and I want to root for her. Sadly, she was kind of a Mary Sue BEFORE we learned that there is no legitimate reason for her to be ludicrously talented at absolutely everything. Including swimming. When she grew up in a desert. So there you have it. I feel that this movie is NOT dominated by Strong female characters. I would ALSO argue that it has no genuinely strong MALE characters either. The explanation for Luke's total collapse as a hero is very very hard to swallow, Snoke's death is just silly given the level of power and perception he had already displayed, Hux and Finn have mostly been reduced to comic relief, Kylo is lame and unstable compared to Snoke, Chewie is barely there, and Poe's entire character arc is the tragic breaking of a bold, brave hero into a spineless and tactically-foolish weakling. When your mission is all-or-nothing & do-or-die, retreat is absolutely inexcusable. That was SO irritating to watch. For those who read this entire rant... Thanks? Now go watch something you will genuinely enjoy!