This is not going to go, the way you think

Rating: 7/10 (12 March 2018)

First of all, not adhering to where you wanted Star Wars to go does not make this a bad movie. I actually think it's one of the most well thought out Star Wars movies, but with a few flaws.
Holdo, Finn and Rose's story made absolutely no sense. Why would Holdo not just tell Poe and the rest of the scared crew what her plan was, especially in the face mutiny? And who bought into the idea of Finn and Rose having developed feeling for each other? Besides meeting DJ (Benicio Del Toro's character) their whole arc felt misplaced and didn't really move the story forward.
But I guess the fate of their story follows a similar pattern to that of the other characters and the story as a whole; that this is not going to go the way you think.
I for once love Luke's story and I definitely did not seen that coming. This aged Luke has seen not one, but two, cycles of evil repeating itself. with it's roots in the flawed Jedi doctrine. He's not the living legend that we hoped he would be, but is instead a flawed man, that views the demise of himself and the Jedi as finally bringing some sort of end to the endless battle. Luke's character development is amazing, going from being isolated and bitter, to accepting his role and flaws (with a little help from Yoda), and tricking Kylo Ren and the First Order without even leaving his Island. How is that not badass?
I also applaud Snoke's death and Rey's parents being nobodies. Haven't we already seen enough of the master and apprentice relationship in Star Wars? Did we really want Kylo Ren to be a Darth Vader wannabe? Did we really need to have Rey being a Skywalker or Kenobi? No, of course not. Snoke being blinded by his own arrogance and killed by Kylo was great. Rey being a random girl who can wield the force is great as well. Remember that everyone has the potential to wield the force, and I'm happy that Rian Johnson brought that notion back to the Star Wars universe, and that we don't focus on familiar names and families again. The only thing I dislike, and which I've disliked since The Force Awakens, is Rey's ability to use the force so naturally without any prior training.
Kylo is definitely one of the most interesting characters in this new trilogy, and I basically view him as a dark version of Luke. Whereas Luke fought to stay on the light side and not give in to the dark, Kylo is fighting not to join the light side. He's also not very calculated which makes him both flawed and dangerous. The revelation that Luke for a brief moment feared the darkness in Kylo, and for a second considered killing Kylo, played very well into how Kylo came to view his family and the Jedi order.
Lastly, the humor and some of the dialogue was sometimes cringe worthy, but despite its flaws, the overall ideas for this film were great. I for once love that we actually don't know what's going to happen in the next movie. Rian Johnson pulled a red wedding on this movie (RIP Ackbar), and I can't wait to see how the story will end.