What a disappointment!

Rating: 3/10 (14 December 2017)

Having thought that TFA was a fairly safe re-introduction to the Star Wars cinematic universe, I was looking forward with great anticipation to The Last Jedi. This film, I felt, was an opportunity for real character development, whilst also setting up a darker tone for the series and surprising us with some interesting narrative twists and turns along the way.
I can't believe I'm saying this but, had I not been with a group of friends, I would have walked out of the cinema about an hour in. To think that I would even consider that for a Star Wars film is absolutely mind blowing to me.
From the jarring attempts at humour to the awful dialogue, this failed on every level. There was no real pacing, with scenes cutting back and forth at an alarming rate, and no real sense of threat, with the main villain disposed of in such an insultingly unconsidered way.
Even the much-awaited reveal of Luke Skywalker was throwaway, in both a literal and figurative sense. Mark Hamill did the best he could with a rubbish script, as did Adam Driver and Oscar Isaac. The rest of the cast really didn't add much, with Daisy Ridley's wooden performance lacking any kind of nuance or subtlety.
Altogether, I left the cinema feeling incredibly empty, angry and frustrated. How this script managed to get green-lit is anybody's guess. I've absolutely no idea where they are planning to take the franchise from here, other than by having Disney find more ways to milk the strange cow creature on Ahch-To for all it's worth.