On second viewing I liked it even more. I had in the back of my mind that I might have missed something the first time around, but I don’t think I did. I didn’t find any big holes and it was even more fun to see it again. I was able to concentrate and hear most of the Jedi lines. Awesome film. Abrams best film ever. He actually managed to nail the ending and add in a short epilogue.
I didn’t have the same experience. If I turn off my brain, it’s a fun albeit messy movie, but once I really delved into the plot, and story it really sort of falls apart much like JJ’s Star Trek 2. There’s a ton of conveniences from the way the heroes conveniently stumble onto the dagger by conveniently landing in quick sand at the right spot, to the way they escape on a ship, that has stood untouched on a hill for a decade (contrast this with the Mandalorean finding his ship stripped for parts after a day), to how the dagger is used to find the location of the wayfinder on moving wreckage in an ocean. Then there’s Lando conjuring a massive fleet and getting it from the core systems to the unknown regions in a time frame that just isn’t possible according to Star Wars canon. I could go on, and on, but you get the idea. This movie is just so sloppy in terms of its storytelling both in terms of in-movie logic, and in relation to established in-universe rules, and lore. I’m not going to be debating this very much anymore, as I’ve kind of grown apathetic towards the new Star Wars movies in general, and the ST in particular (RO being the sole exception), but in my view TFA was a fun, reasonably competent retelling of ANH with a few elements of TESB, and ROTJ thrown in, TLJ is the anti-thesis of Lucas’ Star Wars for me, that I don’t care to discuss any longer, and TROS is ROTJ on steriods, a movie, that hides its many, many flaws with lightning fast pacing, and amazing visuals. It’s funny that with the release of TROS I’m kind of done with discussing these films. There’s just not much there for me, that I haven’t seen done better in the past, and so ROTJ will remain the conclusion of the saga for me personally. The one thing that I am oddly grateful for is, that the recent movies have given me a better appreciation of Lucas’ prequels. I think the Mandalorian, and other live action tv shows have a lot of potential for the future, but the Star Wars cinematic universe has grown stale in my view. I will sort of look at it from a distance to see how Disney will handle the inevitable fallout from the film’s likely underperformance at the box office, mixed reviews, and low cinema score. I suspect they will want to put this entire mess behind them, and will largely ignore this era in their future content, and a new team will likely be brought in to shape the future of the Star Wars cinematic universe.