A few points on this film.
The races are fun. That's what we wanted most of all, and the eccentric Wachowski style hit the spot. It's very hard to adapt source material not at all designed for a live action film with a balance of respect to the source material and creativity. For the races, this worked stupendously.
The rest of the time, the visuals are some of the weakest elements, feeling at least as cringy as the worst of the Spy Kids franchise. With the rest of the film's positives though, I'm happy to overlook it, even if I have to cringe at times from the effects.
One of those other strengths is the film is the family drama. I could see someone calling it cliche and predictable, but honestly it just works incredibly well for me and has a lot of heart. This is not a movie I would expect to make my eyes water a bit, but it happens multiple times throughout. It's truly a heartfelt film.
But additionally, one of my favorite themes in anything is the idea that you shouldn't love anything as a means to and end (as the villains do with racing), but you should love things for their beauty in themselves. Like Goku in Dragon Ball Z with fighting, Speed learns to love the race and the car as beautiful ends in themselves. This theme drives the film beautifully and once again connects to a deep humanity similar to the family dynamics. It's always a good pairing when you have a character who learns to love something for it's own beauty in a film, combined with a beautiful film (with aforementioned exceptions).
While I have to make a conscious effort to ignore the cringy parts, overall this film leaves me with very positive feelings. If they toned down the "Spy Kids" vibe I think it could have been an 8.
First the bad, then the good. (Spoilers, obviously)
The rebel plotline was totally weak. Star Wars is usually pretty epic, and spending about 2/3 of the film on a very slow, uneventful chase was just not wise for a major Star Wars film entry. Felt like a side-story, not the middle of an epic trilogy.
Finn's plotline was probably the worst. It was like they just needed to give him SOMETHING to do. Out of all the myriads of cool plans devisable in the Star Wars universe, wasting a ton of time looking for a mysterious code-breaker is mediocre. And then he betrays them like the writers just gave up. So much potential with the character and Benicio's fantastic acting. Rose on the other hand... was like they were just looking for an excuse to stick an awkward girl from Tumblr in the film? To make it more relatable to Disney fans? Ug, no. The casino as a theory had potential and I don't dislike the poetic mirroring of the original films (and Jabba's Palace), but it just didn't work. The people who were running the creation of the film may have noticed it was like "new Star Wars" but no one asked "is it actually entertaining?"
Slapstick Star Wars... :sigh:... Star Wars has laughs but they are witty character moments, not cartoon peng-whales splatting on a window. I like Pixar but not in my Star Wars. Having them make nests in the Millenium Falcon I did like, but everything else was, like Finn, forcing Chewbacca to have something to do. No need for roasting them so they can make funny faces and make 5 year olds laugh.
So many great characters just got wasted. In addition to the backup codebreaker, Finn, etc. did you notice that Admiral Ackbar died without a word? They really just should have had him in the role of Holdo rather than making a new character.
Okay, now that we're past all the stuff I'm realizing, more and more, was pretty aweful...
The Jedi plotline was majestic. Excellently written, fantastic character development, great elaboration of the force, and fit genuinely as a blend of fresh and traditional in the Star Wars cannon. Kylo continued to be a captivating character. Luke and Kylo's situation was excellently written and equally executed. Luke really did work like a Sith when He tried to protect the force by his own power rather than letting it guide him. Yoda was great and totally pulled a mystical spiritual elder situation that's key to Star Wars (and Yoda). The Snoke throne room situation with Kylo and Rey was glorious. And the reveal for Rey's family was surprizingly satisfying for how much they built it up and then gave a brutally simple answer.
And my second favorite element: the visuals. I didn't know I could be so into Star Wars as a work of beauty in colors and cinematic angles. Where the innovation with slapstick failed, the innovation in visuals kicked butt. The fight in Snoke's chambers and the battle on Crait were beautiful works of art.
There was some terrible humor but also some really classic Star Wars humor, like Poe's dialogue and trashing of Hux at the beginning. I was happily reminiscing on Solo's style.
Honest to say, the GOOD was so good I didn't notice how terribly BAD the bad was until later. I can see why people are so polarized about this film because... it's a polarized film. I enjoyed the heck out of it and probably consider it my favorite of the new films (RO and TFA) but at the same time consider it the "worst" film objectively. I think adding a beginning arc and making the "rebel tracking" part of the film the middle rather than majority of the film could have improved it greatly. And doing almost ANYTHING other than the codebreaker plotline with Finn and Rose.
I am thankful that I have no idea what the next film will be about. They set up for a VERY epic scale tale and I hope they deliver.
