My biggest gripe was how safe it all felt. For every moment it tried to venture into something new, there was another that just felt plucked from the original trilogy. The ending was the biggest offender of this; Palpatine shows Rey all of her friends being shot down in the sky, urging her to kill him so as to stop it, and then Kylo comes along to help her out and ultimately gives his life to save hers after Palpatine died because of his lightning (again). Worse yet, was how much felt like a blatant Endgame finale rip off:

- Have the small group get overwhelmed? Check.
- Have one dude facing off against an entire army and thinking it's over? Check.
- Follow that with person on the radio announcing the arrival of virtually everyone behind them to save the day? Check.
- Have the villain make some "I am X" remark followed by the hero retorting with the same back as they land the killing blow? Check!

Some of the scene cuts are awful too. A battle between Kylo and Rey is suddenly interrupted with a shot of Leia going "I know what I must do" and then using the last of her life force to project her voice to Kylo. They've heard nothing from Rey's group since they left, have no clue where they are and then suddenly Leia interrupts a fight with no build up on how she even knows it's going on. Fine, explain it away as some force bullshit but it still felt very forced in.

Previously, I specifically said I didn't want them to clone Palpatine... and, that's exactly what they did . Maybe EU fans won't be so disappointed by that particular development, since that already happened there... but, I personally can't help but feel that it's something of an insult to Vader's redemption, since it largely undoes the impact of that. (It also makes me question the impact of clone-Palpatine's death at the end of this movie: how do we know there isn't a backup clone of Palpatine somewhere else? After the original's death in Episode VI, I had no reason to question the finality of his death... but, now that we've seen him come back from the dead once, I'm heavily suspicious that he'd be able to do it again in future movies - at least, as long as Ian McDiarmid is still able and willing to come back...)

On the other hand, I quite liked the revelation that Rey is the granddaughter of Palpatine. I remember there were a lot of different theories about Rey's ancestry after Episode VII came out - and, that was probably my personal favourite one. Not only was it a bit different from what had come before, but it explains how she ended up as a random scavenger on Jakku (she was put there to protect her from herself), which the "Luke's daughter" and "Obi-Wan's granddaughter" theories couldn't really do. The only thing is, it doesn't seem to mesh with the revelation in Episode VIII that her parents were 'nobodies'. I know that this revelation was specifically about parents, and it says nothing about grandparents - but, even if her father had accomplished nothing of significance, his parentage would have made him noteworthy in and of itself. So, this did feel more like a retcon of Episode VIII than an addition to what came before :-/ . Still, the Original Trilogy did things that felt like retcons of previous movies all the time, and it didn't stop me from enjoying those movies .

Another twist that I liked was the one about Hux being a spy for the Resistance. I've seen it said that a good twist is one that you don't see coming, but that makes sense when you look back at it. This twist fit the bill: I didn't see it coming (admittedly mainly because I'd forgotten all about Hux ), but when it came, it immediately made sense, in light of the fact that Hux and Kylo and long shared a rivalry. (Still, I suspect that he can't have been a spy from the beginning... if he was, then why did he lead the blowing-up of those star systems in The Force Awakens :-/ ? Maybe he really was loyal to the First Order at that point, and he only began covertly aiding the Resistance after his main rival became Supreme Leader... that's really the only way I can make sense of it)

I have very mixed feelings about Kylo Ren's redemption. On the one hand, I thought it great that Leia sacrificed herself to redeem him: I kind of knew she was going to die in this movie, and this seemed like the most natural time to do it. On the other hand, the whole sequence seemed a bit rushed and not entirely convincing (there were other pacing issues - particularly in the final battle - but I thought this one was the worst and most noticeable). Then again, I suppose they were limited in what they could do by the untimely death of Carrie Fisher: if she had still been alive, they could have filmed new scenes with her for this, but as it was, they were just working with what they'd got . Based on that, I guess this was the best they could reasonably have been expected to do (while still having Leia sacrifice herself for his redemption).

I was glad that we got to see Kylo Ren (or, rather, Ben Solo) doing some fighting for the good guys: that's not really something we got to see with Darth Vader after he was redeemed. I was also pleased that he sacrificed himself at the end, just like Vader did (so, in that sense, he really did get to "finish what Vader started" ). The only thing that bothered me a bit was when Rey and Ben kissed at the end... it's no biggie, but it just felt a bit corny to me :-/ .

I'm not sure what I think about the droids, especially C-3PO. I find myself unable to decide whether he was amusing or annoying! Still, I liked the whole memory wipe thing, because the trailer strongly suggested that he was going to die... but, the movie surprised me quite pleasantly when he didn't :O . So, I'll give them positive marks for that.

Oh, and at last, Chewbacca got his medal . It was a cute moment, even if it was blatant fanservice. (In fact, there was quite a lot in this movie that was just fanservice... but, I was kind of expecting that, so it didn't bother me too much )