I liked the movie, really I did... but this post is going to contain a pretty good bit of criticism.
So, I hated, hated, hated the side plot with Rose, Finn, and Benicio Del Toro. If you ask me it served no point at all and really drug out the length of the film. Nothing that happened on the side plot mattered for the resolution of the movie. I think the biggest flaw in this film was that Rian felt he had to spend time telling Finn and Poe's story when all we wanted was more more more more Luke, Kylo, Snoke, and Rey.
Think about this -- the original films really had 3 main characters -- Luke, Han, and Leia. We spent every moment with them and they were together almost all of the time. Other characters only existed to interact with those 3. This movie has Rey, Luke, Leia, Kylo, Finn, and Poe as equal main characters and they are never really together at all except at the very very very end of the movie.
The moment when Poe meets Rey at the end of the movie... are we supposed to get some romantic sparks there?
So, now to some critical questions:
1. Why did Luke disappear into mist at the end? Had his concentration making an image of himself on a far off planet weakened him to the point of self-destruction or something? Huh?
2. What was Yoda's point? Did Yoda convince Luke to help the resistance? Why did Yoda show up?
3. So, when Laura Dern hyperdrove into Snoke's ship, it killed a bunch of stormtroopers and knocked everyone out, except for Rose... really?
4. How did Rey get off Snoke's ship? How did she get onto the Falcon? Did I miss a scene?
5. I loved how cool Snoke's guards were, but it would have been nice to see them kick butt a bit before they went into action against two stud force users. We should have believed there was actually some peril for Rey and Kylo in that scene, but there was no sense of that (though it was a really cool lightsaber fight).
6. Maz Katana talking while fighting for her life was lame beyond all belief. That scene was so bad, it really pulled me out of being enveloped by the movie.
7. Leia flying through space and not instantly freezing to death was insane and bad. There are rules regarding the Force and the universe but it feels like Rian was making them up as he went along in this movie. I thought this was the second movie in a row where it felt like Leia had only a passing impact on the story. She was almost an afterthought.
8. There wasn't a single thing that happened on the gambling planet that was even remotely interesting. There was some kind of class warfare kinda message being imparted to us there, I think, but it was heavy-handed and did not work at all.
Now, some good stuff...
1. Poe's "I can't hear you" conversation with General Hux was one of the best moments in cinematic history. I was dying with laughter.
2. I adored the connection between Kylo and Rey and how it drew them into a relationship of sorts. Like I said at the outset, I would have watched the two of them do that forever and been happy.
3. Kylo killing Snoke was masterful. Snoke can sense exactly what Kylo is doing, but does not realize Kylo is doing it to him, not Rey. I adored that scene.
4. Of course, the best moment in the movie was Luke wiping dust off his shoulder. Sooooo awesome! It is worth noting that Kylo then faces Luke and says there will be no more Jedi after this fight to which Luke says Kylo is wrong, implying Rey is now a Jedi. Are we supposed to think that Luke has trained Rey enough for her to be a Jedi? I'm not sure I buy that. Of course, I'm not sure there is a specific definition of what a Jedi is, so I guess she can be one even without a lot of training.
So much more... taking a break for now.