The Last Jedi? We can Hope

Rating: 4/10 (15 December 2017)

The films lack of focus from a narrative perspective is perhaps the most obvious and daunting problem posed by this mess of a film, but it is also aided by Rian Johnson's many failed attempts at humour and fan service that fall well short of the original trilogies energy. Dare I say even Attack of the Clones, possibly the most condemned Star Wars film to date, at least had structure and relevant character development. The Last Jedi however falls flat on its face time and time again throughout its unnecessarily padded runtime, with dozens of 'shocking' and 'dark' moments: quite obviously Johnson's nod toward a darker Star Wars film akin to Empire, which are so overused and rushed in setup that I myself was completely desensitised by any impending twist.
From the off, issues with regard to story and editing were prevalent with each scene plagued by over-dramatisation and poor pacing. The very first scene featuring Paige Tico's untimely death is indicative of sequencing throughout the whole movie, with her character kicking that ladder for what felt like a million years before the remote finally fell for an unnecessarily dramatic catch. However Paige's death is just the beginning in terms of exaggerated melodrama, with 'THAT' Leia scene following not long after...
With the passing of Carrie Fisher many speculated a heroic final goodbye for her much beloved character. Johnson however, obviously lacking in foresight handles this hurdle poorly, almost taunting fans with Leia's close brush with death on the bridge before she ridiculously flies through space in what could possibly be as cringe-worthy as I'm assuming her CGI duplicate will be in the next film.
Leia's temporary replacement, Vice Admiral Holdo was also a wasted opportunity, with her character stepping up in Leia's absence as a potential new leader of the Resistance. Not only was her martyrdom another example of a newly introduced character being killed too soon, but it also could have served as a great sacrificial exit point for the late Carrie Fisher if their roles were reversed. Even the manner in which Laura Dern's character was killed off was jarring as her hyperspace insta-kill is honestly a step too far. The destruction level caused by such a manoeuvre will make fans wonder, why don't they just do that all the time? Why didn't they just do that to the Death Star?...Twice?
Fans also wondered whether Gwendoline Christie's character, Captain Phasma would finally live up to all the hype as portrayed in advertising and merchandise, however she seems to have been surplus to any real plot movements once more; undoing all added canonical source material that sought to bring her back from the dead after the Force Awakens, and ultimately her characters appearance in the film was as brief as it was pointless... except for all the toys sold in her likeness I suppose. Well-done Disney. Money... Speaking of even more disappointing deaths, we move onto Snoke, a character depicted as the next main antagonist: a character who from early scenes in this film seemed like he might be the most powerful Sith Lord to grace the silver screen yet. His ability to manipulate Kylo and Rey across vast distances was a testament to his unique powers unseen by any other force wielding character in the now pretty average canon that Disney seems to be creating. But it was his signposted death at the hands of Kylo Ren that was most disappointing. A sequence set out to shock the viewer, yet I was not at all surprised at Kylo's betrayal; in fact I'll be more shocked if Snoke doesn't eventually put himself back together when Disney realises that they've just killed the most interesting character in the film. And of course it wouldn't be the first time a Star Wars villains death was later retconned as Darth Maul once survived being cut in half after Lucas Arts realised they could sell more toys if he was alive again, so all bets are off I guess.
And finally I must mention Luke Skywalker's sudden departure. Putting aside the fact that many, including Mark Hamill himself fundamentally disagreed with creative choices surrounding his character... Luke's death was just really silly. A scene that totally lacked any emotion or resonance toward the story, he just simply died and that's that: kind of a spit in the face to kill off such a beloved character in such ambiguous fashion.
All these deaths and subsequent lack of empathy from audiences are the result of Johnson's flailing story. The plot can be summarised as succinctly as "Rebels flee from the First Order" in an almost comically long car chase, whilst simultaneously the plot with all its throwaway tangents and expendable characters seems almost impossible to discern an overarching story.
Moments like Maz Kanata's holo call, Yoda's return (apparently force ghosts can now summon lightning and whack people on the head with sticks), or Rey's infinity mirror scene didn't work to expand the Star Wars world as we know it; alluding to an expanded universe that stretches beyond the main plot as other Star Wars films have done so in the past, rather these moments added unnecessary clutter to an already misdirected catastrophe of a film that's nothing like the Star Wars mythology of old.
Much like J.J Abrams, Rian Johnson has looked to both copy and rebuke the classic Lucas mould by adding in uncharacteristic narrative elements that blur the lines between good and evil. And by effectively removing both the Jedi and Sith order by killing Luke and Snoke respectively, the series has set itself up to be more grey and ambiguous in intention. I feel this is what Mark Hamill was referring to when he spoke of doubts... Star wars should be formulaic. It's the classic battle between good and evil, but now Rian Johnson and J.J Abrams in kind, seem to want to leave their mark by reinterpreting and effectively butchering the series oeuvre.