I wanted to like it, too. Too much. I avoided spoilers, but saw some review headlines. Best STAR WARS movie since EMPIRE. Saw that more than once. I wish I hadn't gone in with such high expectations. I would have liked the movie more if I had known it was a stinker in advance.
TFA premiere was noisy and joyful - I also don't remember leaving a movie with a better feeling. Last night, people filed out in silence. No excitement. No eagerness for the next movie.
Milking that Thing was just gross and pointless. There was an adolescent quality to a lot of the humor.
Luke's flippant flip of the light saber (which Obi Wan had given him, which belonged to his redeemed father, which he lost along with this hand at an incredibly painful and poignant moment in his life) over his shoulder felt like something a teen-aged boy would come up with. It felt disrespectful and dismissive of the incredibly beautiful scene set by JJ Abrams at the end of TFA. Hey, let's do something unexpected! Ha ha! Let's be irreverent - that's super Current Year, right? It was flippant, irreverent, adolescent - and most definitely not Star Wars.
Rian Johnson had to put his stamp on it. His irreverence was hubris. And the homage to JURASSIC PARK was self-indulgent (the contents of the champagne glass vibrating - starting with one drop and building, caused by giant thundering beasts).
