or just have luke show up himself instead of as a projection
The more I think about this movie, the worse it gets. The character of Luke Skywalker is completely butchered. You're telling me the man who confronted the apprentice of the evilest man in existence, the same person who killed his friend Obi-Wan in cold blood and threatened to kill his sister and everyone that he knew, in order to attempt converting him to the light side (and succeeding at it) would just blindly try to murder his own nephew because he may have turned evil? There's a reason Mark Hamill was so vocal about the script when he saw it; that's not Luke. I can understand destroying the expanded universe (which, when you really think about it, is a lot more far-fetched and ridiculous than you'd remember) in order to make a good story, but when you destroy the characters that have been previously established in other main-line movies in order to do that, it's just stuffty writing. I mean, why even have a map to Luke Skywalker if he doesn't want to be found? Just don't make a map then.
Rey is even more overpowered here than in The Force Awakens. One scene of her training with a lightsaber and she's on par with Darth Maul and can take on 20 imperial guards at once (with a little help from Kylo Ren). What was even the point of the room in the island strong in the dark side? They were trying to emulate Dagobah, I understand that, but all they did was make some dumb mirror effect that didn't play into the story at all. And I'll admit, I'm kind of glad that they didn't do the predictable thing and make her Kylo Ren's brother or tie her to another character for some stupid reason, but the explanation that they provided makes her even more broken, because if she has no strong lineage in the force then she's just super powerful for no loving reason.
Finn and Rose's subplot was a waste of time. I hate Rose, and I can't explain why. She feels totally out of place in the universe. The whole casino scene was a hamfisted, heavy-handed "grrr rich people are bad" statement that barely plays into the overall plot, since they find a guy that can get the job done in a prison cell. And don't get me wrong, I like Benicio del Toro, but why wasn't Maz the code-breaker? Is there any reason they decided to basically write her out of the movie? She was one of my favorite characters from The Force Awakens. Oh, and why was Finn slashed in the back in the last movie if it made no difference here? It's played for a sight gag and that's it. There isn't any rip in his jacket or anything from where he got struck.
The problems with Phasma are not solved in this movie. She dies. She gets three or four lines in her entire movie life and then she dies. Snoke isn't any better. Do you know how big the theorizing was when he was initially revealed? How many people were saying he was secretly Palpatine or Plageuis or someone else? We wanted to know who this guy was, and he dies halfway through the movie. I've seen a comment online theorizing that he is actually a cosmic being of the Force that latches onto bodies and inhabits them (which would explain Snoke's deteriorating face) but I highly doubt the writers of this movie thought that far ahead.
Overall, don't think about this movie for more than fifteen seconds and you'll like it. It is enjoyable, just stupid. Look at the scores on Rotten Tomatoes. Particularly the audience scores compared to those of the critics.
