Star Wars, TLJ - Missing Power

Rating: 6/10 (22 December 2017)

I think Luke Skywalker was undermined. Due to the sensitive nature and like qualities of Mark Hamill, I truly believe some of the decisions made about his character in this film undercut his strengths as an individual, an actor. The way the whole thing plays out almost makes a fool out of him and Skywalker. I think its a damn shame, too. The guy more than held his own in this film and i was impressed. In the first films he had this aloofness, a sense of being far away. And this suited him well. It also added depth, perhaps meaning to the films. His sensitivity would have been a powerful vehicle if his character was handled less sloppily here. The writing decisions here make him come off as weak, unsure, even a bit unstable. Its too big and bombastic for his natural way and what he can bring with that to the role of Luke.
Also, comic relief is one thing but this was a bit too much and in an over the top sort of way. I enjoyed the silly animated porgs, is it? and Chewy having problems eating one of them in front of the others. I thought the force training sequence with Luke and Rey where he busts out the branch and messes with her was totally in line with how Lucas might have played out some humor in the originals. Genuinely funny. I actually thought the the Momma joke that the pilot makes at the beginning to the commander was funny. Unfortunately, i dont think it works as a whole and i would have sadly cut it out if it would have been up to me. It works but doesnt quite considering it utterly undermines any sense of dread of adversary and leads to a complete undoing of the enemies plight shortly afterwards.
Ive seen a great deal of die hard fans reviews and i completely respect their disdain. I actually agree with most of the extremely low rating despite not usually doing so. I dont like to live in extremes, typically. Some things said in reviews here that i agree with actually are so full of negatives that it seems there were hardly any redeeming qualities found in some peoples view. I think some of the negatives pointed out are truly too harping of certain aspects of the film.
In conclusion, this film would have been better suited with a more spirited sense of wonderment as opposed to slightly resembling a parody in many parts. Its just that most of the decisions made and characters are so wish-washy that the whole thing is rendered as not all that meaningful. Hell, some of the main characters im stretching to remember the name of at this point. Thats not good.