A missed opportunity, disappointing and frustrating.

Rating: 6/10 (15 February 2018)

The Last Jedi tries to do both: adding something new to the Star Wars series and rehashing pieces of the old movies. The result, however, feels very uneven: Lighthearted humor and awesome action on the one hand, disappointing and in some parts infuriatingly frustrating writing on the other hand.
While its direct predecessor was basically a remake of the very first Star Wars movie, this one includes a lot of plot pieces of both Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi: We get Jedi training on a remote planet with a cave experience, a throne room duel overseen by a seemingly almighty emperor-figure, a walker attack on a Rebel ground base and an old Jedi sacrificing himself, to become more powerful then ... well, you know the drill.
The new elements include a weird kind of humor that is borderline parodistic of the whole franchise. Is it beneficial to the story to completely ridicule General Hux and the First Order during their very first scene in the movie? Do I really have to see Jedi Master Luke Skywalker awkwardly milking a weird alien cow? Okay seeing those robot ironers working the First Order uniforms aboard their dreadnought was kind of funny. Thankfully the Porks are not as annoying as the Gungans from the prequels and actually add some believability to Luke's hideout island.
One big problem of this longest of all Star Wars movies is the casino-plot involving Finn and Rose. It is dragging, the setting doesn't quite fit the Star Wars look and the slapstick and pseudo moralistic snippets regarding slave kids and captive animals feel forced. In the end it will turn out as totally pointless and even detrimental to the resistance's escape plan (which Admiral Holdo keeps secret from Poe and the rest of the crew for no reason until the last second). Another downer here is the total waste of Captain Phasma, who was already underused and disappointing in the last movie. The whole side quest could just be cut from the movie without any effect on the story.
The center of the story is also the best and most interesting part, revolving around Luke, Ben/Kylo, Rey and their relations to each other. Sadly though, here also lie some of the biggest missteps of the movie. Luke's depiction as a broken man is very believable and portrayed excellently by Mark Hamill. The reasons for his exile however are very problematic, to say the least. Luke, who, despite what Yoda, Obi-Wan and the rest of the galaxy said, believed in Darth Vader, the father he barely knew, and brought him back into the light at the end. That same Luke now thinks about killing his nephew, at the first sensation of darkness in him? And after Ben/Kylo destroys the Jedi temple and joins Snoke Luke just gives up and runs, without even trying to get Ben back and/or to defeat Snoke? If he would have tried and failed, like Yoda in Episode III, that would have been a good reason for exile, but to not even try? No, that just doesn't make any sense.
The "Jedi training" also feels a bit disappointing. Luke's lessons don't seem very helpful to Rey, who nevertheless is able to juggle several rocks at the end of the movie like master Yoda himself, without ever training it. And what about that dark side cave vision? Just an endless row of Reys. Pretentious and meaningless. This could also have been the chance to expand on the force. How about Luke seeing the flaws of both the Jedi and the Sith and breaking the never-ending cycle by becoming a grey Jedi, between the dark and light side of the force? That would have added a whole new dimension to the series.
What did work well was the evolving relationship between Ben and Rey. Them teaming up against Snoke and his Praetorian Guards resulted in an awesome fight sequence that felt earned and ended with so many possibilities. But then they played it safe again, let Rey refuse to join Ben and made Ben the new supreme leader. The whole scene also comes with the loss of Snoke of whom, or his history with Ben, we know nearly nothing of and will probably never learn now. It works as a surprising shock moment, but it totally wastes the character of Snoke for the trilogy. It seems like director Rian Johnson wasn't sure what to make of some things established in The Force Awakens, like Snoke, Phasma, Ben's helmet or Anakin's lightsaber, and so he literally (in the form of the lightsaber handed to Luke) threw them away.
The escape plot around the Resistance fighters also feels very contrived. First of all, how can a single Rebel starfighter destroy a giant Imperial dreadnought? Secondly, why are the Rebel bombers flying so close to each other, that when one of them is shot down it takes all the others with it except for one? What a coincidence, that the Rebel cruiser apparently has the same speed as the Imperials and can stay just outside of firing range the whole time. Why isn't the First Order just sending some destroyers in front of the Rebel cruiser through hyperspace to stop them right away? Oh, I forgot, because they are totally incompetent, as established in the first scene, and therefore there never was a real threat after all, right? Say goodbye to logic and suspense.
Another huge disappointment is the end of the movie which also marks the end of Luke Skywalker. He pulls some Jedi hologram trick on Ben and buys the Resistance enough time to escape. Fine, but then he dies anyways? Either let him unearth his X-wing and fly there for real to face Ben in an awesome last duel, or pull that trick and let him join the Resistance. This way, however, it just feels like the writers had to get rid of Luke, because he is to powerful, which would make Rey unnecessary. A very disappointing end for Luke. The following epilog about some slave boy felt weirdly meta and out of place with the rest of the movie.
Of course, the cinematography looks impressive, as do the CGI and the practical effects. The casting and acting, especially by Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley are excellent and on point (with the exception of the overacting Hux). The same goes for sound and music, but unlike The Force Awaken for which John Williams created some beautiful new themes, like Rey's Theme, The Jedi Steps or the Resistance Theme, he cannot add anything new here and just varies familiar themes.
The movie feels like a rough draft that would benefit tremendously from a few more cuts and changes: Cut the casino plot, cut the weird humor scenes, cut the death of Luke and the epilog and include that Luke went to face Snoke to safe Ben and failed and then went into exile. With that it could have been a much better movie.
The way it turned out, however, it's neither a bad nor a good movie, but a very frustrating and ultimately disappointing one. It cannot be viewed as an individual movie, because it's part of a trilogy and a series. And as part of that it fails. It's a missed opportunity to really tell a new and believable story, while also respecting what happened in the past.