The Last Jedi - An end to the magic behind Star Wars

Rating: 3/10 (18 December 2017)

I vividly remember the first time my dad showed the original trilogy. I was around six, had grown up in a world of power rangers and movies where graphics were being introduced, so I was never awed by the effects of Star Wars like my dad was. However, after seeing the Return of the Jedi I was hooked. I was left with so many questions, who are the Jedi? What is the Force? Who are the Sith? What is the story behind Darth Vader? I was touched by the magic of Star Wars. Not for it's effects, but for opening my mind to a whole new world of creativity.
After reading some of the books form the extended universe, and having watched some of the cartoon growing up I learned that there was so much more to the Force, there was so much depth to all the characters, and a lot of questions I had were answered. When The Force Awakens was announced I couldn't wait to see it, I couldn't wait to see how the canon storyline would be developed, and when I finally saw it I could feel that childlike magic again.
However, when I saw the The Last Jedi I felt like that magic was snuffed out. There were a lot of issues I had with the movie from it's completely pointless plot lines to its poor and corny script. Some of the main reasons I had an issue with were (SPOILER ALERT):

Juggling too many plots at the same time

o Some of the plot lines were good and set the rest of the movie very well such as the whole struggle within Kylo, his tension with Snoke.
o Others were pointless especially the whole Casino plot

Poor plot

o Rey was supposed to go learn from Luke, when he finally agreed to teach her he really didn't teach her much, she basically taught herself how to use the force and how to use a lightsabre.
o She could fight on par with Kylo even though she had a few days of Saber training where he has trained his entire life
o THE DREADED CASINO PLOT, Finn literally had no role in this movie apart from getting half the Rebels killed, which could have been killed form the start and the extra screen time used better
o Flimsy backstory to Kylo Ren and his purpose for killing everyone at the Jedi Academy
o Luke was ready to let Vader kill him in order to turn him to the light, but Luke senses darkness in sleeping Kylo and his instincts kick in to kill him? After years of following the light his instinct is to kill an unarmed kid? Not the Jedi way, nor was it Luke's way (if you've seen the original trilogy)
o What was the point of Snoke?

Poor use of the Force; two movies in and no epic saber battles?

o Did you ever see the clone wars cartoon? Ever saw Mace Windu decimate an entire droid army? With all the CGI advances why couldn't they introduce a fraction of that level of epicness

Complete disrespect to the character of Luke Skywalker

o Luke who has been set up as a legend who saved the universe is now a hermit due to his failure of saving Kylo.
o Made him the most indecisive Jedi Master of all time, I mean force Ghost Yoda was more decisive than him. The whole movie revolved around whiney Luke who couldn't stick to his decisions. "There's nothing you can do to stop me!" Two seconds later, "Ok nevermind".
o Killed him off in the most pointless way. Fair enough, this movie is about the new generation of characters, but to treat the original cast as useless props is not only disrespectful to the characters but also to the audience. If Luke had to be killed off, which he shouldn't have been, why not actually have him on Krayt? Why not have him use all the Force he could muster to take out a battalion of Storm troopers, maybe destroy a few AT-ATs, then face off with Kylo? Why not have a Yoda v Palpatine type of saber sequence? Why not bring the new trilogy full circle with Kylo striking down Luke the same way Darth Vader strikes down Obi Wan (Luke on the verge of death sheathing his lightsabre, being at peace, and vanishing like Obi Wan)?
o His role in this movie only served the purpose of giving a little insight into Kylo's past, giving Rey some insight into the force, and stalling Kylo for long enough for the remaining rebels to escape.

Kamikaze Rebel Ship

o Ok, this scene was actually amazing. But why the heck didn't the vice admiral use that tactic when the first few transport ships were shot at?

SNOKE!

o What a waste of the big bad guy! Ok I like the plotline of where Kylo is going, but what a waste of the build up to Snoke!
o Snoke who is the big bad Sith lord who is shrouded in mystery had the most lacklustre death I have ever seen in Star Wars; I mean Boba Fett falling into the Sarlac pit was better. He can sense what you think but he couldn't see the light saber next to him turning. I mean you don't even need 20/20 vision to see some movement let alone the force.
o It feels like what JJ Abrahams had started was completely derailed

Corny dialogue

o A lot of movies now is jumping on the Marvel trend of using humour, and it was a bit overkill in this movie.
o There were some truly funny moments, and some lines were just straight up forced.
All in all, even though I enjoyed several moments and really liked some of the plot lines I was disappointed by the totally lack of linearity, the complete waste of characters and previous plot lines, and a total waste of the potential of a movie. This movie could have answered so many questions to The Force Awakens but instead Rian Johnson decided to completely sweep what was laid in the Force Awakens under the carpet and rather than laying a solid framework for episode 9. In my opinion the writing was extremely poor and lacked creativity, a lot of elements in the plot were recycled from the original trilogy, and he essentially crapped all over the audience assuming that you can feed them a sub-standard writing and they will willingly accept it. I for one do not, thank you Rian Johnson for ruining what could have been an amazing movie.