It is still a retread

Rating: 5/10 (20 December 2017)

In terms of visuals, The Last Jedi is the best looking Star Wars film, shiny bright, wonderful use of monochrome and then adding splashes of red in the climactic battle.
It is also overlong, flabby, takes an age to get going and at times feels dull. Just as The Force Awakens made you feel that it was a loose remake of Star Wars: A New Hope. At times you feel an air of The Empire Strikes Back here especially when you see the Imperial Walkers in the desert and the rebels being on the run.
The Last Jedi has three subplots. Rey (Daisy Ridley) who has the element of the Force about her meeting Jedi master Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) who has become embittered and reluctant to help the rebels or Rey although he senses the Force is strong in her. Rey of course wants to find out more about her parents but she is also psychically linked to Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) who himself struggling with his own identity on the dark side.
Then there are the resistance ships being hunted by the First Order. With General Leia (Carrie Fisher) sidelined, there is tension between impetus hot shot pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) and Vice Admiral Holdo (Laura Dern) as to how to evade the First Order firepower when you are running on fumes.
Finn (John Boyega) the ex-stormtrooper teams up with a clever mechanic Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) to go aboard the enemy ship after first finding a master code breaker to disable their tracking system. Finn might be impressed by the high class casino full of wealthy arms dealers when searching for the master code breaker but Rose schools him on the inequalities of life.
The film needed to be sharper, it needed a story that was zippy. What we got is a film that tried to be thoughtful but instead became portentous.