Been meaning to post here after seeing it a second time.
[spoiler]
So, I've softened my stance a bit. I went a couple weeks in between viewings, and maybe my subconscious worked on how I felt about the movie and smoothed some things over (you were right, Dakkar). I still like it less than The Force Awakens, but I don't dislike it as much as I did.
-I think the dialogue between Dameron and Hux, immediately followed by that terrible space-bomber scene, got the movie off on the wrong foot for me. That attempt at humor was terrible, and that bomber scene was horrible.
-I still think most of the attempts at humor were heavy-handed. They were, however, easy to ignore the second time around. It reminded me of a Marvel movie, which is usually OK because the humor usually fits in Marvel movies. But Disney now owns both franchises, so I'm a little worried about bleed over.
-Regarding physics--yes, Star Wars breaks physics. It always has. The Death Star trench run wouldn't have been nearly as cool if real physics had been involved. It's just a fact of life--Lucas planned the dogfights in Episode IV from watching WW2 gun camera footage. And if you can suspend your disbelief, there's nothing wrong with that. Which means--and I came to this conclusion in a discussion with a friend of mine (I think it was Zorper)--that my issue with the "Holdo manuever" is that it is WAY too close to "real physics", and thus incongruous with the space maneuvering and combat we've seen in previous Star Wars movies/shows/games/etc. Yes, that is pretty much what would happen (given my limited understanding of general physics--I'm not trying to nitpick here) if you were able to get that much mass to accelerate that quickly through another object. The true "Star Wars" version of that, I think, would have involved Holdo crashing her ship nose-first into the larger ship and one or both of them exploding spectacularly or breaking apart and crashing into...something.
-Other than some of the attempted humor, I had no issue with how Luke acted. I do like that they sent him off into the sunset (literally) with him sacrificing himself for his friends and family. And that was a beautiful scene at the end, with him disappearing off the rock.
-I'm still not happy about the lack of explanation of Snoke, but I'm over it. And I'm hoping that's not the last we see of Phasma. If Boba Fett could survive falling into the Sarlacc Pit, I think we'll see Phasma again.
So, there it is. I was a little harsh in my first "review", and I've had some time to reconsider some things. Not a truly great movie, but not a terrible one either. And let's face it, none of the Star Wars movies have been truly "great" (except maybe Empire, and possible Rogue One), but they have mostly all been entertaining.
Ultimately, though, I do wish they hadn't waited so long to make sequels. If I had my druthers, they would have made Episodes 7-9 based on the "Heir to the Empire" trilogy by Timothy Zahn, which was as good if not better a story than the original three movies.
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