Yeah, I think I'd have enjoyed it a lot more if I'd been able to think of it the whole time as an Star Wars AU, rather than "the real story". Like, I can appreciate what they were going for? And it is fun to see how it took all the tropes/plotlines from Empire Strikes Back and subverted them. And I can see how you could find the ideas inspiring!

But as it stands, I had a hard time really emotionally connecting with the movie -- I came out of TFA loving the new characters, but after this one I feel like I love Rey and Finn and Poe a little less? And I'm not sure how much of that is how they were in this movie, and how much is that the movie itself bothered me enough about other things that it just left me cold on them too?

(and I do blame the casino scene for a good chunk of that, to be honest -- the movie's pace comes to such a screeching halt there that I started thinking about other things during it! One of the reasons TFA worked for me is that it goes so quickly you get swept up without having a chance to contemplate the plot holes and whatnot. I feel like I was enjoying the movie well enough until that sequence, but then that gave me time to mull, to my eventual dissatisfaction...)