Thought the movie was nonsense on pretty much every level, though I appreciated the use of the Alchemical philosophy in -- sort-of -- unifying the force. However, I could see that coming from the last movie and so the "conversion" scene was no surprise at all. Driver is a good actor, and did a good job prepping us for his complexity; the rest, meh, but then, the writing gave them absolutely nothing to work with.
And seriously, flying a herd of yak-warthog-horses across 100s of lightyears, just in case, oh, I don't know, you might need them to go thundering out onto some landbound imperial warcraft? Really? If YOU had to race across the galaxy to save civilization from permanent evil, would you take the time to round up a herd of beasts? I burst out laughing in the theater; fortunately, my 16-year old grandson, who was seated next to me, is accustomed to my sensibilities and I didn't ruin anything for him. Somehow, of all the idiotic things in the last six movies, this scene stuck out as the softest spot in a pear that had already been rendered more rotten mush than the firm golden fruit one expected from the first three. Still, it was cool to watch them. I didn't feel like I wasted my money, primarily because my son-in-law treated. He even bought popcorn, bless him.
And all that said, I'll admit that I still love to watch practically anything populated by cool shit speeding through space. Sci-fi is still a treat for me, even the drek, which most of it is these days. Glad I went and I encourage others too, as soon as it hits the cheap seats. Definitely a big-screen event.