This isn't the Star Wars film you're looking for

Rating: 6/10 (22 December 2017)

I like films. Actually, I really like films. I also really like TV and I really like novels. I like drama, action, fantasy, I like low-budget art-house films where nothing happens, I like gore-fests and I like psychological horror.
In all these genres, I have very high standards. Yet I can love a cheap-as-chips horror film as much as I love a glittering, star-studded Oscar winner. Why? Because every film should be judged on its own merits, in the context of what it is trying to achieve and according to the traditions of the genre in which it exists. If I'm watching a Malaysian action film, such as The Raid, I judge it on the basis that I should expect to see lots of seriously shot, highly choreographed violence, a simplistic storyline and some throwaway stuff about familial betrayal. If I'm watching a film about the nature of the interlinking of humanity with itself, the animal kingdom and the world, through the human senses, such as Upstream Colour, I'm happy with very little action but lots of juxtaposition of sounds, visuals and emotions.
And if I'm watching a Star Wars film, what I'm pretty much exactly looking for is a Star Wars film. The Last Jedi is not that at all.
The reason many critics love the new Star Wars film is exactly the same reason why so many fans hate it. The Last Jedi takes the very specific sensibilities of the original trilogy and throws them out the window. It takes a series of films that are, at their best, exquisitely made, ground-breaking genre pieces and presents us with an easily accessible, bog-standard sci-fi action movie. It appeals to the lowest common denominator (i.e. non-genre fans), and the critics run with it because they know how to evaluate bog-standard sci-fi films. The critics feel at home with The Last Jedi in a way they did not feel at home with, say, The Empire Strikes Back (which garnered lots of negative reviews upon its release). Just as they felt at home with Arrival in the way they didn't feel at home with Starship Troopers (the former being an arty film that happened to have a sci-fi theme, the latter being a film that both gloried in and yet also subverted a low-brow sci-fi sub-genre and confused the hell out of the critics in the process). The Last Jedi is a perfectly serviceable contemporary action movie, complete with diversity, messages and all that stuff. It ticks lots of boxes for the film critics. But unfortunately, the director is so enamoured with his big brain, he decided he didn't need to respect the source material.
It's rather disappointing that despite so many years having passed since Star Wars' release, so few critics appreciate where the artistry lies in the original trilogy. The simplicity of the stories, the casual, natural intimacy between the main characters, the purity (bordering on naivety) of the messages of film, the fact that everything is presented at face value and nothing has to mean anything more than you want it to... all these things are lost in The Last Jedi. In their place we have contrived relationships, forced messages, and a complete lack of authenticity. All well-and-good for a trying-to-be-smarter-than-it-is Disney flick, but just not good enough for Star Wars. The OT Star Wars was high concept film-making at its best, but what we have now is the opposite. The critics love low concept movies, which is fine, but it's not the point of Star Wars and they really should be able to understand that. Yes, the OT Star Wars films had their inherent limitations, but the people behind those films pushed up to the very edge of those limitations. The latest edition tries to do more by blasting the limitations away, but ends up achieving a lot less as a result.
The Last Jedi: 6/10.
Critic's response to The Last Jedi: 1/10.
p.s I've seen quite a few comments along the lines of "I never really got into the Star Wars films, but I love this one", even from some critics. To some, that means bringing Star Wars to a new audience, but in reality it just means selling out. Has cinema really become so artistically bankrupt that it's now seen as a good thing for a franchise -owner to burn away a highly-regarded creative work's foundation in the name of putting new bums on seats? No wonder TV is where all the talented creatives are right now!