Cute, fun way to spend 2 hours

Rating: Null/10 (2 January 2018)

I'm going to go against the downward trend right now and give an overall positive review for this film. I actually enjoyed The Last Jedi, and that means a lot, because I can't stand most movies these days.
WHAT'S TO LIKE ABOUT THE LAST JEDI?
-A return of beloved Star Wars characters, like the iconic Luke & Leia, R2D2, C3PO, Chewbacca (Chewie!!), Storm Troopers, and of course, Yoda.
-Lots of new and cute types of creatures: (1) The huge-eyed, puffin-like Porgs on Luke's island. (2) The sweet, deer-like Fathiers who were with the kids in the stables. (3) The most striking creatures of all - the shimmering Vultex, with their strip-like crystals of "fur." All adorbs!
-They have a spunky Asian female character in there - Rose, played by a bubbly newcomer, Kelly Marie Tran. It's nice to have a fresh new face, played with such positivity and energy.
-Rey (Daisy Ridley) is a small step up from Felicity Jones, her dead ringer in Rogue One. Jones was terrible in Rogue One, but the equally-beautiful Ridley is slightly better in terms of acting skills and charisma.
-Rey's costumes (two of them?) were both fantastic. When she was with Luke on his island, her costume seemed so beautiful, understated, and right for her role as an aspiring Jedi. It looked like Lululemon meets Link from Legend of Zelda. I really loved her costume. And then when she was in that giant room with Kylo and Snoke, she wore another beautiful but understated costume, with a dark gray v-neck shirred or pleated top. It's would be perfect for a chi-chi Toronto yoga class.
-Ben Solo/Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) is a striking and interesting villain. You keep wishing there's something between him and Rey - is there some chemistry, a love interest? But doesn't happen. Driver is handsome yet strange-looking at the same time. He kind of looks like Marilyn Manson. Would like to see more of him.
-Snoke as a villain didn't seem at that, but his face was very interesting. It's a nice feat of CG effects and/or theater prostetics, I guess.
-The alien-filled, glamorous party that Rose & Finn crashed - now why couldn't they have stretched that part out longer? The creatures and their glittering costumes were so beautiful and dreamy.
-The Matrix-like, Zen, metaphysical parts - such as Rey & Kylo reaching for each other across time and space. Or Daisy feeling the force(?) up on Luke's meditating rock. Or Luke's last moments spent on his rock, his cape or scarf drifting away in the wind.

WHAT'S NOT TO LIKE ABOUT THIS MOVIE:
-No chemistry between the two POC sidekicks, Rose & Finn. Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) seemed to like Finn, but Finn never paid her any mind. He always seemed cold and uninterested in her. Maybe John Boyega just isn't a very good actor - the word "wooden" comes to mind. It all surprised us when Rose kissed Finn right before she died - because there was no chemistry at all, much less romantic, building up to it.
-They had to make both Asian characters die. Asian characters are unimportant and expendable, thrown in there because you want to look PC and diverse. Early in the movie, they killed off Rose's sister. And they had to make both Asians in the movie related? It's like how in Rogue One they threw the two Asian characters together, like they were Siamese Twins. People think Asians need to band together and can't be independent, separate characters on their own. And yeah, they killed off Rose because Asians are expendable - just minor, lesser things you don't care about.
-The Middle Eastern contribution is actually a Hispanic actor, Oscar Isaac. His character, Poe Dameron, was VERY annoying in the film - just as Isaac is in real life, I guess. I don't understand his relation with Leia, and his little feud with the Laura Dern character, Vice Admiral Holdo. She called him a "flyboy" - but based on body language and vibe, I think they really liked each other. They should've built that into a cougar romance. Now that would be nice and edgy from Star Wars! Dern is slightly annoying in the film, but she and Isaac match in annoyingness, so a steamy romance seems possible. Her purple hair and glamorous high-neck costume seemed a little odd.
-As everyone else mentioned, this is a very confusing, badly put-together film. It's full of plotholes and side stories that go nowhere. You don't know what's going on most of the time. Like other recent films, the filmmakers were very lazy here. They just thought up a bunch of creative things, and threw them together in a messy and haphazard way. They definitely needed to edit this film significantly.
-WHY did beautiful, mature Leia fly into that pod and lay/slept there? Did I miss that much of the film? And how did she resurrect again? And why did she and Dern's character talk like old friends, squeezing each others' hands, towards the end? How did they even know each other, and what was their relation?
-What was with the deer-like creatures and the kids in the stable? There were lots of "off" things about this movie, but that was one of the most random.
-The very end of the movie - what were they trying to imply with the little white boy from the stable, staring off into space? It's The Last Jedi - but is he going to continue with the Jedi legacy, or something like that? It was kind of lame and puzzling. The movie didn't end too well.
The first quarter of the film was pretty good, but it went downhill from there. It dissolves into a pretty and entertaining but confusing mess.
Still. The film overall was enjoyable for me, and very few films are these days. So I'm giving it a 7/10 - a much higher review than all the ones I'm seeing lately on IMDB.