I have to agree with Snore. A+ for vision C- or worse for execution.
I really respect that they decided to burn all the old star wars stuff down so they could be masters of their own fate and not be tied to telling the same George Lucas story with the same George Lucas characters. Honestly, if Disney had given me the helm on episode 8, I would've largely done the same thing .Burn it all down and start something new. In that sense, I can really respect the balls on Disney to actually try it, since you know the fanboys are going to be angry that whatever comes next, isn't the same star wars story with the same star wars characters and the same "fill out the mad lib" type story telling that TFA was. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy TFA, I really did (I enjoyed it way more than TLJ) but it was what was just a rehash of the original trilogy. And that was fine. To revive the series you need that, now that it's done you need to set it up for the next iteration and make it your own. Which is what I see they were trying to do.
They tried to do WAY too much. In their rush to burn it all down/tie up everything nice and neat for the next set of movies they made some ridiculous missteps:
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- Rey's parents? I know you wanna get away from the "uncertain parentage trope" but to keep bringing it up over and over and then to be like "Nope. It's a big nothing burger. Psych!" That was insanely lame
- Finn and Captain Phasma. that was stupid. They could have left that for later to give it the time it deserved. This just felt like "Oh yeah, we need to get that resolved. So let's do this cheesy, forced fight that will be really dumb cause we have like 3 or 4 minutes to spend on it." They should have left it alone
- Leia coming back to life? That was laugh out loud ridiculous. There was really no need for her to stay alive. She didn't contribute anything else to the story other than "She's Leia". They should have left her dead. And now that Carrie Fisher is dead, they REALLY should have left her dead
- I get what they were doing with the Fin and Rose thing, and I largely thing it was a good idea. But their little escapade that took so long and was completely ineffectual to the story. You could have largely cut that whole arc out and the movie would have been the same. There were other ways to do accomplish Fin's growth and the introduction of Rose
- They went too hard for the Marvel-esque "smart ass" thing and made the first order look dumb instead of something to be afraid of. Marvel does it because they usually only pull it off when the good guys are winning. But the audience needs to feel like the bad guy is scary and starting it off with the bad guys acting like bumbling idiots does not do that.
- Oh and that stupid purple hair admiral thing was really horribly executed. The only real reason she wouldn't take poe aside and tell him the plan would be if she though the was a spy, which it's obvious that she didn't. Further, if in the end she was just going to "allah ackbar" the thing. She could have done that from one of the ships that were going to be destroyed anyway, like the medical cruiser or a supply ship. That whole things was ridiculous.
- Further, if the first order can track through light space, why bother following them so closely.
That all being said beyond burning it all down, they did do a few other things right
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- I sorta liked emo Luke. I know people feel its uncharacteristic. But I think the reaction was understandable. I do think him trying to kill Kylo is a step too far, but the rest of it I get. Though the whole "LOL JK, Rey is the next Jedi." at the end was too much.
- Some great shots. Leia looking out of the snow field. The shot looking down Kylo's light sabre. Some good stuff there
- Kylo having played Snoke and everybody is a pretty good move as it sets up a good villain and gets rid of the whole "OMG, I R so conflicted" Vader crap. Let's just hope they don't fuck it up.
All in all, I dig the vision but the execution was so bad that it puts TLJ just above the prequels for me in terms of quality. I sorta view the franchise as 4-7 as one set (7 was just a retelling of 4-6 anyway) and TLJ and prequels as another. That being said, that's not great company for TLJ to be in.