Star Wars: The Death of a Franchise

Rating: 1/10 (21 December 2017)

Rian Johnson takes the core story of Star Wars, makes trivial every event that came before it, including each and every individual character arc of the original trilogy. He even takes just about every plot line and allusion to a bigger story from "The Force Awakens" and renders them moot in a most flippant manner. Leaving the audience asking is he deliberately trying to anger life long fans of the saga? We are left wondering after viewing this abomination: "Has he even seen the original Star Wars films?"
Luke is and always will be the heart of what made Star Wars universally loved by all. Sure the other characters had their parts to play, but this was Luke's story, Luke's journey, we were right there with Luke through it all. To undo, and render inconsequential everything he did, and fought for in one fell swoop is unforgivable. You don't need to kill and deface the past to make a new generation. You DO need to honor and respect the story and respect those characters that made this new generation possible.
This film, I warn you, if you were alive to have watched the originals and endured the wait for Empire to come out, and live through the Han in carbon freeze interim until Return of the Jedi, this movie might just kill any desire in you to see another film with Star Wars in the title. Because these are the heroes of our childhood, and the way they are treated is an insult to many of us.
The film might be viewed differently for a younger generation who binge watched the originals over the course of a weekend, but for me, this movie was the death of a dream, the death of hope.