Episode VIII as people call it is a continuation of the story from Episode VII in terms of the Resistance trying to overcome the First Order and Rey's trying to find her place with help from some guy called Luke Skywalker.
I attended a fan screening yesterday and was delighted to see something extra before the start of the film which showed how John William's music has integrated into this world. Now let's move on to the actual movie.
Mark Hamill gives his best ever Star Wars performance (well on par with Empire) and all of his scenes including the amazing ending including the twin sunsets were just mind blowing and emotional. Carrie Fisher however does her best performance IMO for this one and from the new characters, Kelly Marie Tran who plays maintenance worker, Rose was great. It was also great to see some old characters return and I could feel the same atmosphere the theater with so many people remembering their childhood watching the first trilogy.
The movie stands on its own so does not carry the story in ways you expect it to or it does in a predictable way forward IMO and you can watch the next one without having to see this but of course SW fans (me included) won't do that. Rightly so.The movie does set up wonderfully for Rian Johnson to continue his planned trilogy of new SW characters.
Snoke's story was ballsy but ultimately disappointing to me unless of course there is another twist in the final episode which I highly doubt. The movie feels uneven as power and abilities of certain characters differ a lot when they are interacting with one another. Kylo Ren still looks like a child for his behavior at some point even though he has grown as a character so at other points he looks very menacing and powerful. The story with Benicio Del Toro's character did not make a lot of sense to me about him explaining how war is caused by both sides even though you could feel once side portrayed as the just one in most other scenes. At least it appeared to me that way. Also, a lot happens in the film, and so some sad moments (not most) do not get time to breathe. For example, some characters do not get the to feel the emotion at a loss which probably is fair seeing how these are really tough times for our heroes. Some of the character like the crystal critters did not make sense to me as they didn't really serve a purpose. Not everything has to I understand but this is my personal opinion. I like Finn and I understood his chemistry with Rose but their storyline involving them going off on missions didn't reply mean anything to the overall story.
Overall, a fun movie to watch. It is the longest SW movie but I didn't get bored watching at all.