Review of Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) by Honacloi — 11 Mar 2018

The screenplay was dysfunctional as a dramatic narrative. That is not an opinion but a statement of fact since I am myself (among other things) a screenwriter with a great deal of education in dramaturgy.

That critics gave this film a glowing review does not bade well for those critics' credibility frankly. From now on I will not rely on the mainstream media for reviews since all the well known reviewers are either uneducated in the art of storytelling (so why should I listen to them?) or have other motives for providing misleading information to the public.

What they did to the once great character of Luke Skywalker is unforgivable. Mark Hamill more or less created that role, beating out Lucas's terrible dialogue and imbuing him with great spirit and conviction. He was a character I looked up to as a child, my ultimate hero, and they treated him with such disdain, subverting his character entirely without a word of explanation.

And then, in what looked like a last minute addition since it included a shot of twin suns that had not been earlier established in the film - as though to imply gravity to the scene - they had him puff out of existence in a shot that looks like it was CGId in at the last minute also.

Personally I suspect Mark Hamill didn't know they killed Luke off before he first saw the film, but is alas constrained by a gagging order from speaking out. Quite aside from disrespect for the character this showed a total respect for an extremely talented man like Mark Hamill.

I'll be skipping episode IX. Still not decided on Solo, but honestly, the prospects don't look good. The Star Wars saga may well have ended disappointingly for me on December 14th 2017. Ruin Johnson destroyed something I'd been following for 35 years, since the age of 5 and he still won't shut up with his pathetic excuses for the choices he made.

The man has no writing talent whatsoever. I'd love to have a write-off with this guy, a contest to see who can write the most engaging story. The Last Jedi was NOT A STORY. Stories require consistent and fulfilled character arcs of which this film had none. The fact that the writer/director of this film seems unaware of that point just illustrates my point that he has no business whatsoever calling himself a 'writer'.

Anyhow, rant over. Film was awful basically and it kind of hurt me internally, 35 years of emotional commitment was thrown against the wall. I can't even watch The Force Awakens anymore because this film also destroys that film since the questions posed in the first film were inadequately answered in this one.