Prepare to have a lot of what you liked about the OT destroyed.

Rating: Null/10 (22 December 2017)

Directors seem to often have to make a trade-off between sticking to the Star Wars canon and lore on one side and creating a new piece of art on the other. Regardless in what order you rate the original Trilogy (OT), they seem to have (mostly) struck the right balance between these two extremes. Hence the rabbit multi-decade fandom. Arguably Star Wars fans put up with Episodes 1 to 3, because even though they were terrible films, they paid homage to the universe. You felt that you were, even kind of, watching a Star Wars movie. The Force Awakens drew criticism for basically following the same plot as A New Hope. Yet seemed to generally win over fans by mostly striking this balance. Paying homage to the old (too much for some) but introducing the new.
Mr Johnson has been lined up for his own trilogy of the Star Wars Universe. A storyline that would be separate from the known characters and old plots. It feels like he decided to jump the gun and impose his own take now on the OT storyline. The Last Jedi is very much nihilistic take on all characters, canon and lore you loved. There is no way that Mr Johnson could have been a Star Wars fan given the lips service he gives to every one of the old characters.
If you are new to Star Wars you'll like this film. It's a fun Sci-Fi Adventure. If are not new and actually like Star Wars, prepare to have most of the characters destroyed. Judging the film on it's own it definitely had some strong cinematography. There were also solid performances from some of the actors.
However, the film had very strange humour throughout, which did not land once with a packed audience in my cinema. There were strange plot directions and twists that took characters on journeys purely, it seemed, to introduce bad CGI. There were some incredible continuity errors. (Like dropping bombs in zero gravity space). A villain that, in my mind, lacks any depth. And lastly, what I have seen and tend to agree with. A complete re-writing of the Luke Skywalker character.
I am not a rabbit fanboy of the films. Only someone that grew up with the original Trilogy. I really just could not make the mental leaps we were asked to make. A character whose arc involved aiming to save his evil father years later wanting to murder his nephew.
I completely understand that Disney and Mr Johnson wanted to spark the interest in a new generation of fans. The entire film was exactly about that. Yet it seemed pointless to have these old characters involved at all then. I can honestly say that this Director has killed the franchise for me. I sat through all the terrible prequels hoping that the next one would be good. The Force Awakens and Rogue One, I thought, were great steps to revive the franchise. I have no interest in seeing the last film. For Star Wars fans, thinking about seeing this film I would advise not to. For anyone that likes Sci-Fi and CGI, you should be okay.