Two decent action movies sandwiching dull dull dull

Rating: 6/10 (31 December 2017)

I think the Star Wars franchise moves closer to the edge of irrelevance with each entry, starting with (in the order actually made) Attack of the Clones and proceeding onward. The first portion of this movie mildly engaged me, the much too long middle portion with Luke and the girl was Star Wars at its meandering, grade school arbitrary philosophical worse, then the action kicked back in and saved my 12 year old from leaving the theater (by a hair). Ridley is attractive and effective, Driver presents fine as the young evil force, but the explanation (if there is one) as to why he went bad is even less convincing than for Anakin Skywalker, and for this to actually work that has to be done better. Star Wars was always light on believable plots or characters, more in the mode of this person is this way and that person is that way, this happens and don't ask anymore questions. No one else does much for me and the graphics are less effective than in the last movie. Add to all that, there was an intervening Star Wars movie which probably wiped the vestigial memory of Star Wars 7 from any normal person's brain, and this is more bust than blockbuster.