Ok, so my thoughts on this film are complicated.

I knew what was going to happen in the movie, I had read the leaks. I saw how horribly it was being reviewed and I started to feel very worried.

I saw it opening night with my family, with whom I have watched every Star Wars opening night with since Force Awakens. We had a very positive experience. I knew that I loved it but I couldn’t rank it just yet. My favorite moment in the movie was when Rey and Poe yelled at each other for about a minute straight, followed by Ben’s shrug at the Knights of Ren.

Days went by and I slowly realized something. The only real reason why I resonated with this movie is because it had the characters from the previous movies in it. Because of Force Awakens and especially Last Jedi, I had grown to love these characters, especially Rey. This movie, in my opinion, completely ran backwards from the wonderful step forward that The Last Jedi had made in the franchise. That movie ended with a quiet, personal battle between a broken man and his master who failed him. This movie ends with a billion ships attacking a thousand Star Destroyers. I mean, Last Jedi spoiled me.

This is the first sequel movie where I know that I will only ever watch fan-edits of it as soon as they become available. I’m sure that someone will be able to fix a majority of my perceived issues with the movie and make it a worthy trilogy-closer. I can only hope that Disney decides to be generous and provide some good deleted scenes.

I’m so disappointed.

If Finn and Poe had had a romantic subplot I would have been slightly less disappointed.