I guess since I’m one of the few people on this website who doesn’t hate TROS, I should just shut up. But I recommend that a lot of the hardcore haters should try and watch it again. If you’ve already watched it twice or more, but still hate it, then I understand.
I saw it twice in theaters. The first time struck me as so bad it was good and as I kept thinking about it that night it became more and more hilarious. Literal side-shaking laughter for a good hour that night.
The second time really just cemented the impression from the first time except that it was less funny.
I was on record here in saying that I would have counted this movie as a win as long as we got an adventure with the entire crew for the first time, and the trailers were a cause for hope. There they all were in the Falcon, there they were in the desert, and for the record that’s the best part of the movie for me. On a surface level their banter is fun and it checks all the boxes for an adventure. The problem is that the entire exercise is tangential to the plot and, crucially, doesn’t move Finn, Poe, Chewie, or Threepio forward as characters. The main plot would have been entirely unaffected had Rey gone alone. So even the sure thing of the group adventure was ultimately a failure. Add to that Rey Palpatine, Sheev again, and the Dumb Sith Fleet and the movie becomes a complete waste of time.