Snoke was powerful as any Force user we’ve seen in the main medium (bar maybe starkiller and expanded universe books) but as is always the case in Star Wars, overconfidence leads to downfall. Jedi, Sith, light, dark, grey, it does not matter. The moment you get cocky, something bad is going to happen.
Luke losing a hand, anakin thinking he’d take out Kenobi, Windu arresting Palpatine, Snoke thinking he’d gotten his hearts desire (I guess... we have no idea who/what he was or his motivations). The only time this rule is broken is if the Falcon is involved!

I enjoyed this movie, I liked the ties to Empire but I love that not everything ties back to Skywalker. I hope Rey remains a nobody, that Ren remains a petulant little snot with power. Phasma was wasted, Chewbacca was wasted but I understand why. The casino scene was bloated and over cooked but the failure of the heroes was much needed as well. The stupid first order chase was another stupid over confidence failure and punishment. The scene of Holdo hyperdriving through the fleet was masterful, the sound department deserve an Oscar for it alone.

I never expected Leia to survive the bridge attack so I was flummoxed on how they use her next movie, it won’t be enough to have her leave the resistance from being heart broken or some such off screen. I expected Snoke to have more information gleaned as well as the knights of ren (Praetorian guard as the knights was my expectation) and I expected Luke to go out like Kenobi in A New Hope so I was very glad he didn’t. I am actually glad to see him go, he was always one my least liked elements of the original trilogy, the fact he was declared a Jedi master after what seemed like days of training was hilarious. The flashback temple scenes were a disappointment too in that again the knights were mentioned but never amounted to anything.

Lots to like, no movie is perfect but the cast performed admirably, the highs were sensational, the lows mere blips in the overal scheme of things. Not everything has to be tied off nice and neat, not every question needs an answer (plus that’s what the next animated series after rebels may delve into). I love that from here they could go anywhere with the story. The heroes are unsupported by all but a stablehand, the only working lightsaber is a poorly constructed spitting cross guarded one and the main villains, while still powerful have little leadership.

Personally I hope the first order splinters as it is obvious to all and sundry that between Hux and Ren, the leadership group is incompetent and imbicilic! No one would follow either of them after their numerous failures.

Also full points for puppet Frank Oz Yoda. Don’t care that he controlled lightning from beyond the grave. Just good to have the puppet crazy and insane Yoda back.

On a side note I’m peeved about the LEGO set tie ins. The bomber is amazing as a set but were mostly crap, the destroyer barely features, Snokes ship and the big gun ship were more important. The gorilla walkers barely feature and the Crait scenes not overly good in their conversion to LEGO... at least Rens tie fighter is on the mark and the training set seems decent...