This Movie Is Trash

Rating: 3/10 (30 November 2018)

Rian Johnson had the opportunity to continue the story that was set up by J.J. Abrams in The Force Awakens and expand on it in a way that would make people care about and understand the overall story of this new Star Wars trilogy. Instead, he wasted it by essentially shrugging off all unanswered questions from the previous film and not developing any of the characters (or anything else, for that matter) in any meaningful way.
The overall story of the film is comprised of three plotlines focusing on Finn, Poe, and Rey, and none of these plotlines really go anywhere; all three characters end up right back where they started and enter the final act of the film having learned basically nothing. Also, the movie spends most of its runtime deconstructing the black-&-white morality of the Star Wars movies only to backpedal on it in the final act.
Playing with the lore and cannon of Star Wars is not in and of itself a bad thing, but Rian Johnson does it so haphazardly and nonchalantly that it feels disrespectful to the series as a whole. Hyperspace tracking is suddenly a thing! Ramming other ships at lightspeed! Mind-linking! Astral projection! Force ghosts using the Force! It feels like too much at once, and with no prior context for any of these things it's hard to really care about it when it happens.
This isn't like, say, Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 or The Incredibles 2, which were fun but unnecessary sequels to great standalone films. This was part 2 in a 3-part story. This was supposed to continue the story that was set up in the previous film and set up the conclusion in Episode IX. Instead, it destroys everything the previous film set up, spends its runtime building things up only to tear them down, and leaves nothing to look forward to in the final film.
All in all, a waste.