Enjoyable movie despite its flaws

Rating: 8/10 (1 January 2020)

I didn't see it in 3D and I went in with very low expectation. Turned out I liked it more than I expected. Not at first though. When the prologue text rolled and seeing the phrase "Supreme Leader Kylo Ren", I chuckled. The first 2 sequel trilogy movies are not where one would like to learn about leadership, the least of all Kylo Ren. I do realize that J.J.Abrams had a huge challenge in patching up the debacle that Rian Johnson left hims, nothing more symbolic than the Kylo Ren's smashed helmet which was patched together yet with the apparent red cracks. This movie was like that helmet.
In The Last Jedi, many of the characters were demeaned or were rendered futile in meaningless mission. We basically learnt not much about the new characters from the first two movies. This movie at least redeem much of their dignity, and some respect of the legacy characters. We finally got some back story of Poe, with his Bounty Hunter girlfriend. The interesting Stormtrooper background of Finn finally brought up. We got to see more depth in Rey and Kylo Ren.
The problem was, the movie tried to fixed so much that everything moved very fast, felt like squeezing into one movie with many, including the Episode 8 that could have been. The editing was overly done, and gotten confusing at time because of switching to the next scene before settled into one. People could be lost in what is going on in the fast pacing. The development of the characters thus was compromised by the short burst of scenes.
Another problem was that J.J.Abram basically rehashed Return of the Jedi. In fact this trilogy was a rehash. Yes, many said Rian Johnson tried a new direction, but I called that a mean spirited sabotage. In Abrams' rehash, Rey was the new Luke Skywalker, Kylo Ren was the new Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker was the new Obi-wan Kenobi, and Snook was the new Palpatine before Rian Johnson snuffed him out inexplicably.
Now in order to bring in menacing villain to take over Snook, this movie brought back the Palpatine, which didn't make sense following what happened to Return of the Jedi. Lots of this movie, particularly the latter part of the movie didn't make sense. However, they were not annoying and frustrating like the ridiculous action took place in Episode 8. There were also plenty of humor in this movie that flowed with the scene. So like the Kylo Ren helmet, there were cracks but still wearable. I did enjoy the movie as overall.
Just a shame that Disney did not plan well from the start that we got a messy trilogy. As movies on their own, of the 5 Disney Star Wars movies, The Last Jedi was the only one I did not like. Even if Abrams directed Episode 8, we probably would get a rehashing of Empire Strikes Back. Seemed like Disney did not have a vision. One would imagine what the trilogy would have been if they planned the trilogy well or if George Lucas was involved.