Shockingly bad

Rating: 1/10 (31 December 2017)

Aside from some good cinematography and ostentatious special effects, there is little of cinematic merit in this Star Wars episode, indeed it is largely a soulless abomination whose massive earnings have more to do with the public being tricked by media hype, a good trailer and genuine expectations built up from the previous episode.
TLJ may end as the biggest grossing film of 2017 (apparently the only metric of significance to Disney), but in the fullness of time and for those that care for cinema as an art-form and what a superlative achievement the original trilogy was, the Last Jedi will come to be recognized as one of the worst blunders in 21st century American filmmaking.
What are some of its faults? The film is overly-long (for no good reason), the plot and subplots contrived, threadbare and even otiose (the Canto Bight subplot with Finn & Rose is already justifiably notorious), character development feeble or non-existent (especially the villains, Snoke & Phasma), and the acting adequate to mediocre. At a deeper level, there is no suspense, little to no genuine danger evoked from the villains, an absence of heroism from the main characters and an aggressive, and unnecessary, attempt to denigrate and ridicule the mythos and lore of the Jedi (perhaps most pointedly symbolized by Yoda - no less - burning down a Jedi sacred tree/temple). These are just a few of the many things staggeringly wrong in this film.
The nature of Luke Skywalker's character has rightly garnered a lot of attention and comment. His unexplained degradation into an embittered hermit who has forsaken his sister, his people, his Jedi and his optimism to die a lonely old man at the edge of the galaxy is entirely at odds at what we know of the character from the original trilogy and no adequate reason is proffered for his nihilism.
Another weak aspect in TLJ is the coarsely-deployed humor that makes it feel at times as if one was watching "Space Balls 2". Humor is fine, but self-mockery only suggests a film does not take itself seriously. Was this really Disney's intention? In the old films C3PO and R2D2 tended to be the foils for very light humor, but never the main characters, aside perhaps from a few wise-cracks from Han Solo -- to see Skywalker here in TLJ reduced to milking a sea creature for his sustenance and the cringeworthy scene of General Hux being 'prank-called' by Poe Dameron are crude devices that Mel Brooks may have devised.
Those currently praising TLJ are probably in denial or easily amused by elaborate special effects, battle scenes etc. The truth is this emperor has no clothes and the force has died in the saddest and most forlorn way possible. To entirely eviscerate something of culture value, cinematic esteem and emotional sentiment takes some doing -- Disney and Rian Johnson have succeeded in just that.