All Filler, No Killer

Rating: 3/10 (28 December 2017)

The near universal acclaim for this movie has me dumbfounded. Did I watch a different movie to the majority of respected critics? It's scoring 5/5 across the board - this should indicate an absolute masterpiece, worthy of Oscars.
For those that have seen this movie - whose performance would be deemed worthy of an Oscar? Maybe the cinematographer would be in contention. Would you rate this as a masterpiece of all times akin to The Godfather, The Shawshank Redemption? Hardly.
The Force Awakens effectively set out to reboot the franchise, albeit in a fairly derivative manner, it brought the return of characters we know and love, introduced some new ones, married both practical & CGI effects and ended with the ultimate teaser for the future of the saga. It wasn't to everyone's taste but I felt it was a necessary & fun piece of work to get the franchise back on track. Job done.
I admire the incredibly brave direction Rian Johnson chose to take with the Last Jedi, effectively jettisoning the story arcs hinted at in The Force Awakens. The problem is, what he's come up is neither interesting or exciting. The potential for this sequel was huge but ultimately this potential has been wasted. Essentially what you expect doesn't to happen with major players in the movie never happens. The is the real twist of The Last Jedi, which I'm all for. The problem being that what happens in it's stead with these characters is really not a lot.
The movie is incredibly disjointed and bloated. A lot of it doesn't make any sense. Logic is non-existent numerous times throughout the movie.Dialogue is sloppy and much of the 'humour' fails to hit the mark.
Action sequences and locations are re-hashed from previous instalments. Characters appear and disappear for no obvious reason other than to give a nod to the history of the franchise.Killing off characters with less than a few minutes of screen time is hardly an emotional affair.
Ultimately it's a slow movie with no major surprises and lots of irrelevant side stories.
By the end of the movie I felt all of the major characters story arcs had been wasted. Luke. Rey, Finn, Poe, Leia - all wasted. Kylo Ren continues on his dark path without deviation.
It's lives up to it's 'middle film' status in the trilogy - all filler, no killer.