I watched this movie for the first time a week ago, I am new to Star Wars and I am doing a marathon. For years I heard this movie was mid and that it sucked so I went in expecting it to be that but WOW...this movie was an adventure to me, I was entertained from start to finish.
Throughout the entire runtime of this film I was just wondering why people hated this movie so much and I decided to check some reviews on YouTube and most critics and reviewers seemed to like this, only the fans hated it and I don't get why. One of the reviewers I watched mentioned that the reason this movie gets shit on so much is because it doesn't connect to a broader story and I think that's the case...I know a lot people didn't ask for this but come on, Han Solo is one of the coolest characters in the story. The cast and performances were amazing, Alden Ehrenreich was so good and convincing as a younger Han, it didn't feel like he was just imitating or trying to do an impression of Harrison Ford, he was doing his own thing and he made it believable...and the best thing about this movie for me is that you could watch this movie with anybody as it doesn't have any broader connection to the overall story, no Jedi, no Sith, no politics, just a cool entertaining adventure that you can watch with anyone, even people who don't know shit about Star Wars.
Obviously it's far from the best Star Wars movie but it is one of the best post-Original Trilogy...so overall for me, it's an 8.5/10.