The first half lack of focus drags and giving such dramatic weight to Hamill’s performance hurts as well (as does some of the Empire Strikes Back echoes which are larger than reviews made it sound), but the back half is loaded with pop opera imagery and Johnson’s running wild with Lucas Japanese fetish is a welcome addition to current bland big budget filmmaking. Driver still works hard to make the mix of nostalgia and hostalgia that Abraams and Disney executives cook up make some sense. It is weird how much this both tries very hard to expand the series world, and suffers from a lack imagination (the main escape plot often feels like the entire war boils down to two ships and a dozen people).