A very good Episode Five-prime

Rating: 7/10 (31 December 2017)

The Empire Strikes Back was a well-done bridge between the original film and Return of the Jedi. Likewise, The Last Jedi occupies the same ground within the third trilogy.
The close analogies between episode IV and VII (android on a desert planet, cantina-like scene, death-star-like planetoid destroyed at the end) continue galore between episodes V and VIII: rebels rousted from their base by an imperial attack, a young Jedi-wannabe learning from a (reluctant) master, rebels regrouping at the end. In many ways, the newest trilogy so far is a remake of the original, with bigger special effects and a new generation of characters taking over.
The film offers an interesting interweaving of plotlines, lovable and hatable characters, and plenty of surprises - those that one might expect to live die, and those that one might expect to die, live. It also has the great John Williams music, which is slowly switching over from old themes (imperial march) to new ones as a new generation leads the fight. And even the salable creatures (porgs, salt critters) are not over-played. Alas, there are a number of entirely avoidable reasons why 8 can't rise above a 7.
First and foremost are the completely unnecessary plotholes. For example, Leia (who can survive in vacuum) could evidently remove the pile of rocks at the end of the film. Why the need to wait for Rey? Solution: just have them both do it simultaneously, and face each other with surprise when the pile of rocks has been lifted. Or take the whole "Holdo-keeps-her-plan-secret-from-Poe" thing. Plain silly. Solution: have Holdo announce her plan of squeezing in under the radar right from the get-go, as any sane leader would. Poe can still put his head together with Finn and Rose to hatch a "plan B" that they think is more likely to succeed, and then battle Holdo over it when she finds out what's going on behind her back. Yes, it would make Poe a somewhat more insubordinate character (rather than acting against inaction, he would be acting against a plan), but Holdo would look more like a competent leader than a secretive fool. These plotholes abound throughout, and each one could have been fixed with proper tweaks of the script and without altering the flow of the story significantly. Instead, the screenwriters went for cheap artificial tension at the expense of believability of the characters. Star Wars deserves better than that.
The second 'bad' is the one-liners and flippant gags. Like Luke tossing the light saber over his shoulder, instead of handing it back to Rey. Or Luke quipping "..that's pretty much nowhere" when Rey tells him the name of her home planet. As a fan, this stuff annoyed me the most. The laudable thing about Star Wars is (or was!) that while being an all-out space opera, it once upon a time had a certain gravitas to it. It was told with earnestness, like the young children at the end who retell the tale of their heroes. They may be moving home-made action figures around, but they are serious! The quips and insipid gags put an unnecessary chink in the armor of Star Wars. There's enough cynicism in our galaxy. So shame on the scriptwriters for going for cheap laughs in a galaxy far, far away...
They did get a lot right though, and the actors acted well. Especially Mark Hamill did what he could with his material. And there are many nice touches, from letting us see a bit of Phasma's face through the chink in her armor before she falls to her death, to the little boy at the end calling the broom to his hand as a hint that the light side of the force is biding its time.
So, well done all in all, and what was not well done, one could easily fix by editing about 5 minutes of this very long film. Perhaps the Director's cut?