Disappointingly Average

Rating: 6/10 (5 July 2018)

I originally went to the midnight showing of this back in December. Only reviewing it now because, for whatever reason, I was unable to make a review for any title for the longest time.
I've not watched it since, so forgive me if any information I say is... inaccurate.
But this movie. Where to I begin? Well, I suppose I say it's not as bad as people make it out to be. Because it's not. There's something to enjoy here but, some sequences, make it incredibly hard to enjoy it the way it should be.
I'll say the cons first, because they are the most glaring.
I'll start off by saying the Canto Bight sequence was 100% pointless. It was unnecessary and slow. There was no substance in any of the scenes that showed Canto Bight. It felt like they were trying too hard to spread the "animal cruelty is very much real" message. I get it that they want to spread awareness, but don't make it glaringly obvious. Actually have it play an important role in the movie, rather than having it there for the sake of it.
Rose is an awful character, in my opinion. She is just there for diversity sake and nothing but. The actress, which I'll give credit, did a great job with what she was given but I felt like she was shoehorned into this movie.
Rey's training feels far too rushed. Before anyone says that Luke's Jedi training in Empire was rushed, I'll correct you by saying his training took up a good portion of the movie and even by the end he wasn't a full Jedi. He was a full Jedi in The Return of the Jedi. Awakens ended with Rey finding Luke; her training barely happened and all of a sudden she's able to use the force to move rocks out of the way as if she had been training for a long, long time.
Speaking of Rey, the whole "strong female role" feels forced. Again. I'm all for female roles being strong, I am. But don't make the male's almost irrelevant. Finn didn't really do that much in The Last Jedi. Yeah, he had a few scenes here and there, but he practically spent the entire film with Rose. Doing, let's be honest, very little.
Rose saves Finn. Okay, but if Finn is to be killed off in the next film, they've missed a great opportunity. It was a typical "here comes Disney" moment, ruining what would have been a great scene. Not saying I wanted Finn to die, but if they have plans to kill him off in the next one, I'd suggest they don't because they missed out on what could have been a great death scene.
Humour? Too much of it, but there are also pros around that too. So I won't say too much. And Ben Swolo. Why? Oh, and Phasma again falsely built up.
Oh, and last but not least. Luke. This film completely goes against what his character is about. He's meant to be this confident Jedi who always tries to find a way. In The Last Jedi? He's the opposite. He's pessimistic. He's not wanting to save anyone or anything. It's not Luke. And the promise about his screen time? Yeah, false. You probably know that though because you're reading a spoiler review.
Now onto the pros. There aren't many, but the stuff they get right, they do get right, hence my rating.
The effects, in my opinion, are great. They're not overly reliant on CGI. It's good to see that a majority of the aliens in the movie are puppets, but really detailed and realistic ones. It's good to know they've not used CGI for the sake of it like how it was with the prequels.
The acting is fantastic, in my opinion, for the most part. Yes, Rey's still a bit... whiny. But she's not as whiny as she was. She's much better than she was in Awakens.
The action sequences are very well shot and very well choreographed, with all the angles and such. I feel they did extremely well in that department. Really, really well. I enjoyed the sequences.
The humour, albeit overused, was funny in some places. So I could enjoy it in that respect.
Overall? It's not as bad as people say, but don't go out of your way to watch it. If you're a die hard Star Wars fan (like me) then. Go ahead, I guess. But don't go in with high expectations. Keep your expectations neutral and just go in with the "sequel mentality". Rule of thumb is: movie sequels don't tend to always be as good as their predecessors. (Unless your movie is Empire)
6/10