Review of Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) by Dan T — 01 Jan 2018

Despite being a lifelong, passionate fan of Star Wars, including the prequels and the originals, this film disappointed me. I found The Force Awakens to be a very enjoyable film on the first viewing, although less so on subsequent watches due to my perceived weakness of the plot and lack of originality.

I did not even find The Last Jedi to be enjoyable on the first viewing due to it's drastic departure of everything we've seen in Star Wars films in the past. As with the treatment of Han in The Force Awakens, Luke's character arc, which was carefully developed in the original trilogy, was cast away without explanation in this film; he's like a completely different person.

The film fails to answer or build upon any of the plot points or questions set up by The Force Awakens. It's like Rian Johnson created this film in a vacuum, independent of the prior movie and without thought about the next.

The moments where the film does try to deliver real impact are ruined by failed attempts at comedy and cheap gags. In addition, the film was loaded with politically correct and feminist messaging and the delivery wasn't even subtle.

With regard to the plot, Rey continues to be super-powerful and skilled without significant training or explanation; Finn/Rose arc proved not only to be pointless in the end, but it felt forced and was not enjoyable to watch; the Holdo/Dameron conflict could have been avoided and failed to advance the plot, rather dragging it out; perhaps most egregious, the film fails to give Leia the on screen conclusion to her story that the character so deserves.

Ren was the only character who was treated well by this film. His development was fantastic and his arc has become the only one worth looking forward to in Episode 9. This was the first time I didn't enjoy watching a Star Wars film, the first time I've felt let down by one of the films, and the first time I didn't return to see a Star Wars film in the theater multiple times.

I thoroughly enjoyed Rogue One, so I know Disney is capable of producing a good Star Wars film. This was not one.