The Last Jedi Exists and that is fine.

Rating: 5/10 (25 July 2018)

Now that The Last Jedi has happened, can we all agree at this point there are two good Star Wars movies? A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. That's it, right? Return of the Jedi is fine, prequels are bad, The Force Awakens is likeable and Rogue One smells.
What bores me is that Star Wars is limited by the exact things that made it seem limitless because without established Star Wars elements to carry the world and narrative such as light sabres, the Millennium Falcon, TIE fighters and X-Wings, and the dueling sides of The Force, what even is this galaxy far far away? Why is the world of Star Wars essentially the same as it was 40 years ago? You never really see The Empire or The First Order tormenting regular people. You don't get the impression that the every day person is bothered by them.
The film is messy. Characterization and traits can be inconsistent. There are pacing issues, tone issues, plot issues. Its probably a half hour too long. The execution wasn't perfect. In trying to make the twists and turns, it doesn't always go forward or even sideways. Sometimes it makes the left or right to satisfy and surprise, other times it does enough turns that its back where it started.
With quality performances and enough paint, you can hide a lot of the cracks.
At times subversion worked and that's where the interest was. At times it didn't because for all the ways it tried to be original there was nonsense mixed in and it still ended with red light sabre Sith and a military against inexperienced blue light sabre Jedi and the rebels. That honestly can't be a spoiler. Don't @ me.
Failure can be interesting and a great story device unless you make that failure meaningless.