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I still think that Rogue One was the best SW movie thus far, but Episode 8 was just abysmal. There is a youtuber named Vito who does a phenomenal break down of this issue, but it's probably unwise to post a link to it here as he isn't exactly PG-13.

Using jumps to light speed as weapons makes the entire universe appear foolish. That's saying a lot for a universe in which space travel is common but the human interfaces come from the 1970s while some folks get magical powers because George Lucas doesn't know what mitochondria are. If jumps to sublight speed wreak havoc in a narrow cone in front of the jumping vessel, then all space combat (including the orbital bombardment role of the Death Star and Star Killer) belongs to jump-capable missiles. The role of blasters/photon torpedoes/ et c. is limited to things that aren't worth a missile.

My biggest issue with 8, apart from the fact that the narrative fell apart in a swamp of SJW messaging, was the unbelievable lack of story arcs for the main characters, Kylo Ren, Finn and Rey. Episodes 7 and 8 devoted a lot of time to all of them, gave them back stories that could've been fleshed out to make really cool characters, and then just muddles around with ALL of them.

There is no reason why Rey is able to use the force with any facility when every other practitioner from the several thousand year history of the universe requires years of training under a master. Kylo Ren is an extremely weak bad guy: if he can't wipe the floor with a malnourished teenager from the boonies after years of training with a lightsaber, then I have to doubt Luke's story about why he left the Jedi Academy.....maybe he just wasn't cutting the mustard. Snoke always seemed like Discount-Rack Palpatine, and obviously isn't a great teacher. From what I've read about Episode 9 (didn't intend to see it), JJ Abrams made a good call with going back to What Works. Finn's story has a chance to be amazing, but then just muddles around to the point that he seems like a replaceable grunt in the Resistance/Rebel Alliance. Rose's sister's heroic sacrifice seems like one of the most compelling parts of the new trilogy, except for just one thing: the battle took place in SPACE, way outside of the gravitational radius of the planet, and to top it off, the bombs don't even "fall" toward the planet. It kind of seems like the backstory for "Stalag 17" got lost and found its way into Star Wars if William Holden's heroic tail gunner were an asian lady.

Speaking of which:

The "First Order/Empire" is apparently a new Axis composed of Germany, Britain and Japan while the Resistance/Rebel Alliance is basically Space 'Murica, equipped with lasers and the Force and no longer hamstrung by pansy "allies" (which is apparently okay because now we have Our Own Diversity). This strikes me as bizarre because for all of the SJW posturing, in some ways 7 and 8 come off as "Eleanor Roosevelt Leads Us To Victory Over The Hun, The Japs and The Red Coats!". If Episode 8 had ended with multi-racial/gender-fluid Audie Murphy's lightsaber running out of juice in the middle of a battle against aliens wearing Pickelhauben and then a voiceover in a Transatlanic Accent sternly asking "Did you met your production quota today?", the whole thing would've made more sense.

Given these reviews, I think I'll check this one out.