What happened?

Rating: 1/10 (1 January 2018)

So where do i start... well the beginning would be the best place. From the opening scene, I knew I was not in the best hands and that all the work that J.J. Abrams had done to save the franchise from the hands of the prequels, had been undone.
The opening scene in question, has Poe Dameron pretending that he cant hear what General Hux is saying on the intercom. In other Star Wars Film where perhaps Han Solo may have played such a joke, there is no way in hell that General Hux (or his equivalent) would have become a stammering idiot for no other reason than to create laughs. Tonally it was off, way off and from then on, I struggled to get back in. There are many problems in this film - many of them go to the heart of the story and script. The entire journey of Rose and Finn to some gambling planet was a complete waste of time - as was Rose's character altogether. A clear 'Disney' character inserted. The entire plot device surrounding the rebels star ship being tracked through light speed and then running low on fuel, lacked the tension that it no doubt wanted to create and I found myself actually bored on more than one occasion for extended periods of time. Which leads me to the biggest issues of the film. Luke.
An awful lot of time was spent with Rey outside Luke's home, just waiting for him to come outside. When he finally does, his character repeatedly states he wont train anymore Jedi. He then appears to see the dark-side in her, in a big way and then decides she is the future and there will be more Jedi. What?
Finally, he has a brief light sabre battle with Kylo Ren only to sacrifice himself 'obi wan' style, only for it to be revealed that he's not there at all and is still on the island - 'projecting' a version of himself across space, to then die on his own on a stone?!?!?!?!? And I haven't even mentioned Leia's new ability to not need a spaceship at all... The whole film is a misguided attempt to be fresh and new, with no educated thought into how to do this accept seemingly throw everything at the wall and keep whatever doesnt stick.
The film does have some interesting elements to it, but are few and far between, leaving a very confused, expensive mess and once more 'hope' appears to be lost. Can J.J. Abrams pull off another miracle in Episode IX?