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@jaeyukdapbap
It was pretty awful. Far too much happened too quickly , but nothing really added to the overarching story. Flying Lia and shit jokes aside, I was really astounded by how white it all was.
I read a really interesting interview with someone from the Disney team (can't find it right now) where it was explained that one of their great intentions for the continued saga was for it to be diverse in every aspect. There was a great explanation about how they wanted a female director for at least one of the films but were in a bit of a rock and hard place as the industry doesn't provide enough opportunity for women directors to reach the level of experience needed. As such I was quite looking forward to see how Fin would develop in this film and future films. Turns out he was the token black guy who's character had become redundant and they were desperately trying to write something in (anything!) to justify him still being in the film. And hey, he's hanging out with a tom-boyish east Asian woman. Who in fact turns out to be a weak and emotional women who needs saving by a (now redundant) man, who of course she falls for. Because she's a woman after all and needs a man to cope.
Then looking at it more, every character of interest is white. It kinda makes sense for the Skywalker family line to be so. But even the super cool stoic lady who takes command of the resistance fleet whilst (Super) Lia recovers from her swim in space and ultimately sacrifices herself is white.
Star Wars is such a perfect vehicle to portray people of any old skin colour or gender orientation as inspiring beings among a universe of non-human beings (aliens, droids, monsters, humanoids). It all just felt like the weak tokenism of casting Lando in Empire as a black man due to public pressure. And Lando was actually a cool character.
I didn't expect the film to make grand statements about diversity and unity in the world of Trumpism and Brexit, but fucking hell, if Paddington can be rehashed into a message of acceptance for those who are different to us, this film could have at least been diverse enough to let non-white kids come out of the cinema feeling like the way they look doesn't leave them on the outside of society. The black, yellow, green, blue and furry faces shouldn't be filler in these films. they should be fundamentally important characters.