Review of Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) by A D — 17 Dec 2017

I was sorely disappointed by this film. The Force Awakens wasn't perfect, but it still satisfied both my Star Wars fandom and general movie-watching interests. This film was a major step backwards--unfortunately backwards toward all the things that were wrong with the SW prequels.

Rian Johnson had some really good elements to work with, but somehow screwed most of them up. Luke's reappearance was mostly wasted. The promising backstories of Kylo and the Knights of Ren, Snoke, the First Order, and Rey were all flippantly dismissed as unimportant (why, because it would take work to do them well enough?).

Instead of JJ Abrams move back toward building sets and aliens, instead of cheap CGI, Rian Johnson went back toward the cheap crap. Superfluous "cute" and "funny" alien critters and creatures galore that make the film seem cheap and juvenile.

An entire subplot (Casino Planet and stupid rides on CGI horse things) that ended up having no purpose and no payoff. A Leia death fake-out (oops) followed by the most ridiculous Mary Poppins thing ever (could no one tell Rian that was beyond stupid?).

There were so many things about this movie that should have been nixed by any quality control person at Disney. Over-used plot devices (XXX is going to blow up the good guys unless we can do YYY at the very last minute!).

Overwrought, tacky one-liners and gestures (Luke dusting off his shoulder? Milking a CGI alien cow? Finn's Marvel-super hero quips at whatever the lady Storm Trooper Commander's name is?). Basically, this film felt pretty hollow--like a throw away that threw away its potential, Star Wars' most-treasured characters, and did so to create a cheap, profit-making cookie-cutout of a modern-day "blockbuster" flick.

I hope and pray that JJ Abrams is able to pull Episode 9 back from the dark side, but I am not holding my breath.