A Disappointing Next Step For The Franchise!

Rating: 6/10 (11 April 2018)

"This is not going to go the way you think", too right! A lot of people including Youtube's SCREEN JUNKIES have claimed that this is the worst STAR WARS movie to date. I don't think it's the worst, but I certainly don't think it's the best. In the first half I was quite frankly bored, and by the beginning of the second half I had already diagnosed several, big problems: 1) The clunky script had abandoned the emotional weight and grit of the previous movies. 2) There are FAR too many sub-plots and additional characters. 3) It's just too predictable and 4) the whole plot is quite frankly just a rehash of both THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and RETURN OF THE JEDI. Don't believe me? Here we go: a young Jedi abandons the cause of the Rebellion to travel to a desolate homestead to learn how to become a Jedi from a cranky but father-like teacher, "it's a trap" as bad guys close in on the rebels once again, half the gang is betrayed by a conman who they thought was their friend, the young Jedi has a dream where they see a shady figure that turns out to have the same face, the rebels prepare for battle with AT-ATs while sitting in a trench in a primarily white landscape, the 50% bad guy kills his evil overlord, the old Jedi master passes away and finally, a Yoda ghost appears. Sound familiar?
Let's break down the problems: first of all, the script in this film was frankly robotic and really let down the characters. It was basic, boring and rather childish. Such a shame when you've got such a talented cast of both old and newcomers. For example, Domhnall Gleeson as General Hux. Gleeson in my opinion is a fine actor but he was quite frankly awful in this film, completely stiff. Unfortunately, Gleeson wasn't the only poor performance in this movie. I was, however, touched to see Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher reprising their iconic roles in this film, even though I couldn't help feeling sad at seeing Carrie Fisher's swan song. However, apart from these two, because of the script, the cast was a big let-down. Now, secondly, there were just too many sub-plots and additional characters. THE FORCE AWAKENS had many characters but was more focused and balanced in showcasing all of them. THE LAST JEDI on the other hand didn't manage to pull it off and the film felt both convoluted, and over-complicated. It tried to tell so many individual stories when it should have just focused on a maximum of 3 and left it at that. Thirdly, the film was predictable to the extent where I could actually see what was coming up next. The twists are sometimes fun, but you can still see them coming a long way off. Finally, as I've already said, the plot just ripped off EPISODE V and I actually found myself yelling at the TV because of how obvious and unoriginal it was. However, there was another problem, there were several twists that both didn't make sense and were completely unestablished: Leia surviving both an explosion and being able to fly through space to get to a Rebel ship AND, the way telepathic communication was used in this film. This film meant to sell us the idea that you can both see and experience the surroundings of the person (or Jedi) you're communicating with. This was NEVER established in any of the films. Also, it was never ever established that Leia had any supernatural or Jedi abilities ever, in the whole of the franchise, ever! Period.
However, I must admit that the film got slightly better in the second half. The throne room fight was absolutely brilliant and delivered exactly what you want from a STAR WARS movie. I would definitely say that the second half was better than the first but overall the film felt unbalanced and didn't fit together well. The film also provided absolutely NO CLOSURE. Yes, they kill off a major franchise character and the evil overlord but since that overlord featured for about 5 minutes in the last movie, his end (and even his presence) felt pointless. This is pointlessly prolonging a story on ARROW (the series) proportions and just frustrated me further.
There were enjoyable elements to this film but overall it was a disappointing affair that did neither the franchise nor the characters any real justice. Such a shame, let's hope SOLO will do one of the franchises' most beloved characters more justice than this film did it's source material...