The Last Empire Return to Strike Back at the Jedi

Rating: 7/10 (14 December 2017)

Just as The Force Awakens was A New Hope 2, this most recent instalment in the Star Wars anthology is a mix of Empire Strikes Back & Return of the Jedi.
The most recent trailer actually made it appear to be more exciting that it would eventually turn out to be.
It starts pretty much where the last one left off and plays out pretty much exactly as you'd expect, it's a hand holding story that lacks the excitement or surprises of Episodes IV, V & VI.
Rey's character has lost anything interestign bOUT HRight at the top of this I want to say that I believe that the actors involved in this film did a marvellous job as they did in TFA & there are no critiques of their ability to portray their character.
Just as The Force Awakens was A New Hope 2, this most recent instalment in the Star Wars anthology is a mix of Empire Strikes Back & Return of the Jedi.
The most recent trailer actually made it appear to be more exciting that it would eventually turn out to be. Clever editing.
!!!!!That's not to say the film isn't enjoyable!!!!!
It starts pretty much where the last one left off (a couple of continuity errors aside) and plays out pretty much exactly as you'd expect, it's a hand holding story that lacks the excitement or surprises of Episodes IV, V & VI. But that maybe down to us expecting it to be vastly dissimilar to the original films much like the prequels shudder gave us new characters, surroundings and stories (albeit rather duff ones at times).
Unfortunately the interesting set ups from TFA are largely ignored and plastered over with gumpff essentially!
Rey's character has lost anything interesting about her and becomes a generic almost pattern cut version of Luke from ESB & RotJ. Hopefully her character will be fleshed out more in IX.
Finn has suddenly lost his force powers that were established in TFA also the romantic link between him & Rey has suddenly disappeared to make way for Rose a likeable character who's tough and all heart. Regrettably Finn has essentially ended up in Galactic rom com heist plot where he's demoted from front running hero to comic relief.
It seems that a lot of the characters we started to like in TFA have been given their idiosyncratic personalities from TFA. Poe is cheeky and foolhardy much like Han was, Finn seems to be teetering on a bizarre bipolar chasm where he falls over his shadow then becomes a pigeon chested hero. Rey floats along whimsically after Luke then unleashed her anger every time she fights, making it seem like she's about to turn to the dark side any minute.
****Anyone who wanted any popular fan theories to be true will be bitterly disappointed. If only the studio listened to the fans the films would be full of twists & turns. ****
Usually in the middle film in a Star Wars trilogy some great reveal and romantic entanglement occurs, AotC had Anakin & Padme's marriage as well as debuting the ships that would eventually become the iconic Star Destroyers. ESB had the now infamous "I am your Father!" the 'side swapping ' Lando and Han & Leia's romance. TLJ has two interesting moments that are largely unexpected, but the romance that should be happening between Finn & Rey has been sidestepped for a character who's literally just been introduced & the heroes of the first film downgraded to buddies.
^v^v^v^Spoiler time^v^v^v^
1. Leia using the force! Finally, I, like most fans I'd imagine have waited for this moment since RotJ. Brilliant addition to the film, it complimented the story well, built her character and set up nicely her communicating with Luke.
2. Finn's show down with Phasma. Given that so much spin was put on the Phasma character in TFA I expected something epic, what we got was a quick brawl after too many scoops post derby game! Disappointing.
3. Yoda, well it wouldn't be Star Wars without the cute Jedi Gremlin. It's a shame they didn't CGI in Alec Guniness as they did Carrie Fisher in Rogue One.
4. Snoke! I was genuinely surprised by this, It did feel like an alternative ending from RotJ but wow! It's also a very brave way to go especially showing the rivalry between the two Emo leaders of the Empire/First Order.
5. Symbolism! Anakins/Lukes blue lightsaber being pulled in half seems to show the end of the Skywalker family dramas (I hope so) but so late on in the second part of a trilogy. This only seems to open up for yet another trilogy to be announced at a later date following the exploits of these newer characters. *Also Luke's intention to join the Force is apparent when he mimics Ben Kenobi when taking his hood off to see R2. The biggest is obviously the 2 Suns setting on the Skywalkers.
6. Reys parents! Is this a ruse? There was so much stress on 'Who is this magic girl?' the obvious was completely lost. Personally I felt this was a cop out, not as much as it would've been if it'd been revealed that somehow she's a Skywalker. But Kylo Ren/Ben Solo did state her parents were just scavengers like her & nothing special at all. There were various fan theories out there and practically any would've been better than this.
7. Luke joins the Force! This should've been sad, but it was actually laid out in breadcrumbs from the beginning, this was not a surprise, it was 'nice' it wasn't emotional like Han's death was (although that was obvious too) Luke was our hero from the original films and we waited the whole of TFA to get a glimpse of him. I'm glad they did it this way he's come full circle into the new Ben Kenobi.
8. Humour, although some of it was excellent, Lukes reaction to seeing his Fathers original lightsaber. Priceless. There were other parts that were too 'Marvel humour' and although may have raised a smile felt out of place in an ultimately dark and emotional instalment to the anthology.
9. The 'easter eggs' enough now! We get that there was inspiration from ANH in TFA we get that ESB & RotJ also inspired some scenes in TLJ but enough is enough now, so much time has been wasted repeating icon scenes/plot points/storylines that the new characters haven't really had the time to take centre stage, these new films are still very much about Luke, Han & Leia, amazing as those characters are we're two movies into the trilogy and i don't feel like i know the central characters Finn & Rey anymore than i did by the end of the TFA. So ALL their characters development/motivation etc will have to come out in IX.
It feels to me like Disney are doing this purely so set the stage for another trilogy after this taking us up to XII just so we can have stories revolving around the newcomers.