I enjoyed this Star Wars film much more than Rogue One. It was more like The Force Awakens when it comes to showing strong female characters. They were main characters as well as significant supporting characters; I didn't realize that one of the actresses was even Carrie Fisher's daughter. Captain Phasma finally made an appearance; it was short, yes, but she finally got to do battle. It's a pity we never had much character development, and never saw her without her helmet, like we did with Kylo Ren.
SPOILERS BELOW
I was sad that Paige Tico died early in the film, especially since Poe's stupid recklessness got her and all the bombers killed while trying to take out the dreadnought. I'm not sure why Paige got her own action figure if her part's so small. But I love that Rose, even in her grief over her sister, realized that Finn was trying to escape, and she didn't hesitate to stun him even though she thought he was a hero. I liked her plot with Finn, going to get the codebreaker, then trying to deactivate the tracker; I'm surprised that so many reviewers didn't like that plot. Yes, it turned out not to work, and they got the wrong codebreaker, who eventually betrayed them. But it had excitement, and stuff happening, rather than long periods of talking and brooding like between Luke and Rey on the island. I'm glad that they kept fighting even after it looked hopeless for the resistance. I was shocked when Finn tried to fly into the cannon, and relieved when Rose saved him. I was very concerned when she got knocked out, afraid that she would die instead, but no, I think it's just going to be temporary coma thing like Finn got knocked out in The Force Awakens. Surely they wouldn't kill off both their Asian female characters? Especially after killing off the male Asian character in Rogue One as well? Surely they wouldn't want to establish a pattern of that?
Anyway, the force conversations between Rey and Kylo were interesting. I didn't see it as romantic; more of a strange kinship and friendship out of loneliness. She was still lost about her Jedi powers, and was being rejected by Luke, so she needed someone else to speak to. She did at first keep saying that Kylo was a monster, before she started to bond with him. As an orphan, Rey was searching for answers about why Kylo would kill his father. Rey had grown attached to Han Solo, and perhaps hoped to redeem Kylo for his sake. Maybe she thought that was her purpose, to reform him and reunite the family. Also, Rey was drawn to the dark side, and Luke was scared of it, even though he had been talking about balance in the universe and how light cannot exist without dark. No one is all good or all evil, and he wasn't accepting of that duality in her at all. Plus, I guess that Snoke guy was manipulating what she saw, making her see a future in which Kylo would turn to the rebel side. Especially when Luke confessed about trying to kill Ben Solo, Rey thought "did you make Kylo Ren?" and thought she could undo that damage. (Speaking of Snoke, I'm glad he was killed off, so we could finally have Kylo Ren in charge. When he asked Rey to rule the galaxy with him, I think he meant to make her Empress, as if he did have romantic feelings for her. Or it was another lost soul seeking to find family in someone else.)
I liked the scene where Yoda appeared to tell Luke that he should teach his failure also, because people learn much from failures. It finally got Luke to realize what he had to do, using the force again. I was fooled into thinking that Luke did indeed go to the planet Crait and try to battle Kylo Ren to buy time for the resistance to escape. I guess I should have realized something was up when all the lasers blasted him and he was unharmed. After the reveal that Luke was not actually there, just projecting his image to the scene, I was happy to have an explanation. After he stopped the projection, he looked so exhausted, I thought he was going to die immediately, but they kept waiting and drawing it out, waiting for the sunset, until Luke finally disappeared. I read other people saying they hated Luke's death; that once he survived the battle with Kylo, he should have stayed alive. Why? It must take a huge amount of power to force project himself that far a distance and that convincingly. It was a desperate last act to redeem himself, confront Kylo, and save the resistance that he had long abandoned. It was so clearly a final deed to put his soul at peace so he could die. Besides, Luke couldn't actually go there in person because he clearly sunk his spaceship in the water for years; even if he could dry it out and fly again, he couldn't catch up to the Millenium Falcon, after they left. He did what he could, and that was a fitting death.
Overall, it was a good movie, though rather long. It didn't feel slow to me except when Luke was arguing with Rey instead of trying to teach her Jedi ways. There were some nice funny moments too, like when that guy kept putting coins in BB-8 as if he were a slot machine.
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