It failed to make us believe

Rating: 1/10 (4 January 2018)

I walked into the theater, excited to witness pure movie magic about to unfold before my eyes. I WAS aware that the director had installed a few surprises and twists, and was so excited about THAT TOO. It's about time the saga evolved for the new generation.
Then... "uh... what?". Again and again and again...
I think the biggest problem was that the director failed to have the audience (at least the core fans, not the critics or those who regard SW as just another entertainment flick) exercise what we call a suspension of disbelief. Suspension of disbelief is when we let go of the logic and reality and embrace the cinematic universe and its illusions. It happens when we are led to believe that dinosaurs are revived, spaceships can fly at hyper speed and there is gravity in space. These things don't make sense but we unconsciously let them go because that is the magic of a good movie.
Star Wars has never been free of plot holes. For example, in episode 4, Obi Wan could have destroyed the Death Star by using Jedi mind trick on Imperial officers to initiate self-destruct. There are millions of other holes like this, but we chose not to ask because the movie somehow pulls the illusion by showering us with spectacular scenes, great story and lovable characters.
Fast forward to TLJ. The plot holes and character progression in this episode are all messy. I won't go into details: so many other reviewers have done a great job of identifying them.
So much of Disney ambition went into this movie at the sacrifice of series continuity and SW's unique charms. There are so many moments that blocked me from accepting the movie illusion and exercise suspension of disbelief. I wanted to love this movie (isn't that what a true fan must do?) but I couldn't. I kept wondering if I was seeing an important part of the series saga or a well-made standalone fan movie.
The director should have done a better job to convince us to believe that Luke detached himself from the Force. That Leia can actually use the Force. That a anyone with Force can become a Jedi without proper training, instead of throwing them out there and pretend that we can quickly accept these. It didn't work for me and apparently nor for many of the core fans. I blame the director and the producers for approving such a bad script, hence failing at getting people accept this episode as part of SW series.
Meanwhile, I really enjoyed the soundtrack and the visual effects. I hope they do a better job in Episode 9 with story too...