I definitely liked this movie more than TFA. Now I really don't know where to begin with so I apologize in advance if I'm all over the place.
Now at the very end where they showed the kid looking up into the sky, did he use the force to grab the broom or were my eyes just deceiving me? If he did like I thought he did, I wonder if he'll be an important character going forward.
Snoke is a joke (LOL that rhymed). So you mean to tell me that you're a "supreme leader" (I thought he was a general) and you're able to read Kylo Ren's mind/thoughts/emotions/intentions/etc, but you couldn't see him using the lightsaber to cut your arrogant ass in half? But that fight scene between the guards and Rey and Kylo was dope.
Speaking of Kylo, I was in tears laughing my ass off when he ordered all of those walkers to aim and fire at Luke. Like damn dude, this supposed to the second coming of Vader?
Speaking of people who laughed, the master codebreaker or whoever he is was pretty funny with his constant stuttering. Well done, sir.
I understood the Resistance took some losses when they destroyed the juggernaut, but what if Poe obeyed Leia's orders and retreated? The Resistance would've taken even more Ls. Speaking of the Resistance's command, when Holdo took over for Leia, for a while I thought to myself, "This woman is incompetent AF." Tbh, I thought she was a First Order spy who infiltrated the ranks of the Resistance. But that scene where she rammed the ship into the First Order's ship (forgive me people, I'm not a die-hard Star Wars fan so I don't know the exact names of those ships) and it had a 10 second scene of silence, I thought that was a really cool effect.
Perhaps I wasn't thinking about this when I was watching the film, but a lot of people think that this film was catered for SJWs/had SJW written all over it/etc. Does anyone agree with this? I can't agree nor disagree because I really wasn't thinking about it at the time.
On a slightly off-topic, I see that Daisy Ridley is an Arsenal supporter. She chose the wrong red team to support lol.
my response is quite long so i put a quick summary at the bottom if you cba to read the whole thing
i have some thoughts about these things you've put out there and ill number mine just so its easier to organise (for me - not knocking your thoughts because i appreciated reading them lol)
1) yep the broom kid did use the force - and i do think he'll play a small part moving forwards (maybe if they skip forwards a few years rey might be training up new jedi - who knows lol) but even if the kid doesnt play a role moving forwards i think the ending was more symbolic of the overall theme of the film i.e. that ability and potential and inspiration are not just for those with the bloodlines/heritage - but either way im not sure the kid himself will be an important character in the next episode but what he represents i think is important moving forwards thematically
2) i liked the snoke thing - that entire scene was so cool haha - we got to see how powerful he was and how nonchalantly he treated both of them but we also got to see kylo's craftiness with the way he manipulated snoke in that scene to not notice his true intentions - if you watch how he moves the lightsaber and his timing it appears that he's using snoke's power and overconfidence to his own advantage (which just reminded me of the emperor in return of the jedi telling luke how 'your overconfidence is your weakness' lol) - on that note this film is chock full of really cool details if you go back and watch/ watch it when it comes out on dvd like how he turns the lightsabre next to snoke as he turns his own and in the later scene with luke how they give you clues (which most people didnt notice at the time) that luke's not really there in that confrontation - but i agree with you entirely about that fight sequence - the choreography is unbelievable
3) i dont think kylo is supposed to be another vader - that's his goal and it always eats away at him but its part of the intrigue of his character that he's chasing something which he'll never achieve and yet he's so emotionally complex and conflicted - it's a nice departure from the one-note villains of previous star wars movies and it manifests itself in how he gets so tied up by his own hatred and anger e.g. all the guns firing at luke and all the fighters going after the millennium falcon
4) i actually didnt like the codebreaker - i found the stutter quite annoying tbh it felt like a bit of a lazy character trait and reminded me of him in the marvel movies - that whole plotline with the casino felt like the weakest part of the movie to me but then again that's just an opinion lol and you're entitled to yours - i just felt like that whole sequence felt a little bit like harry potter
5) i really liked poe's character ark in the last jedi - because ultimately disobeying leia at the beginning and destroying the dreadnought made the resistance plight worse because the first order followed them with more ships including an even bigger one for which they suddenly had no means of destroying them - and what i liked was that poe was wrong... he was wrong at the beginning (but forgivably so because he did destroy the ship) but he was also wrong to send finn and rose away to the casino planet because that led to even more losses by the resistance because his plan ultimately provided the first order with the information about the resistance plan to escape to crait - without poe's stupid mutiny and planning with finn and rose the resistance would have been able to hide on the salt planet and avoided that almost catastrophic battle at the end - and in terms of holdo she only seemed incompetent because we saw her from poe's point of view - she had no reason to tell him the plan because he was a hothead who had already proven that he had made bad decisions before and with a plan like hers secrecy was probably important - i liked that poe was wrong and it ultimately forced holdo to be heroic to save them all (again) and THAT moment was unbelievable - i've seen it twice and even the 2nd time when i knew it was coming i still gasped in the cinema
6) the SJW thing is the internet being stupid and casually misogynistic i think and it really annoys me that of all the criticisms that people levied at this film (and the force awakens) that this is one that wont go away - the claims ive seen (and please let me know if you've seen any others) but that: -women are being forced into lead roles for no reason just to push an "agenda" - rose tico is just a token asian female because they wanted to be "diverse" - im assuming the reason people cared so much is that there were "too many women in leadership roles" or something idk... did i miss any others that you know of?
my response to that whole thing is that it's a whole lot of nothing - the idea that women are being "forced" into a movie when they still comprise less than half the cast is stupid - there are still more male leads in this film than female leads, all except 3 of the leads are white and the only one who might be seen as forced in is rose tico yet the only reason she's described as forced in is because of the poor execution of the plotline she's in - her character isnt defined by being non-white nor is her race ever remarked upon so i dont know why anyone would have a problem with her (from a sjw angle - its still fair to criticise her character and its arc and plotline but not the idea that its an sjw agenda) - im guessing the other elements of SJW writing claims is about Rey but im not sure i know what it is - and with regards to women in leadership i dont get the complaints - i can kind of see that poe was made to look like he was "mansplaining" a bit but i think that was an entirely natural and organic extension of his flyboy hotheadedness and not necessarily a gender-specific piece of writing
to me the claims that the film caters to SJWs i think is a reaction by a portion of the internet to seeing a more diverse cast than they are used to in hollywood blockbusters but i dont see how the diversity really makes the film better/worse or caters to tokenism either - they cast the best people in the roles they had and their race was mostly unimportant
anyway i digress a little - i dont see any SJW pandering although i can absolutely see that some people might balk at some of the more liberal ideas in the film but i think that star wars has always been kind of socialist (which is why i find it surprising how it was so successful in the US initially given its vietnam-inspired origins) - the rebels are a literal transposing of the viet cong lol...
sorry that was so long
TL;DR
yes the kid used the force
i loved the snoke scene and didnt have a problem with how he was beaten
i love kylo and his relationship dynamic with rey
i didnt really like the codebreaker or the casino plotline
i enjoyed the subplot with poe and holdo and THAT moment of silence was incredible (i gasped both times ive seen the film in cinemas)
the pandering to SJWs claims are ridiculous and seem misguidedly based in misogyny to me (the cast is still more than half male and all except 3 of the leads are white) - the film is absolutely left-wing/liberal but it doesnt pander to SJWs (but star wars has roots in socialism with the rebels being a version of the viet kong - which i always find ironic given the fear of communism in the USA throughout the cold war - and also because Reagan called the STI program Star Wars despite him being so conservative)