Some guy who made an OK movie was put in charge of Star Wars part 8

Rating: 1/10 (12 March 2018)

Oh man, where to start. I love Star Wars, even the prequels to a point. I liked Force Awakens, it was good. It's a movie that can be enjoyed on multiple viewings. It set up some cool stuff for the next episodes in the trilogy The characters were pretty interesting. The main bad guy, Snoke, was set up very well by JJ. I was really looking forward to see what Episode 8 would bring.
I follow some fan threads about rumblings and what could happen for the next two films pretty frequently. Episode 8 was looking to be a great film from the stuff I was reading. The director picked to write and direct Episode 8, kind of surprised me, I had seen Looper and thought it was pretty good. But that's all I knew about Rian Johnson. I knew that JJ and the other producers of EPISODE 7 were still apart of the new trilogy so I didn't really think anything about it.
Well dang, Episode 8 is a complete s**t show. I mean, everything about this film just amazed me on how badly Rian wrote and directed this film. All of his decisions were WRONG. Like many of the user reviews say, he completely ruined all the magic and surprises of Episode 7. It's almost like Rian said, F everything you guys want, i'm making a weird art film with a 200 million dollar budget.
My main complaint like many is, Rian totally ruined Luke freaking Skywalker. My childhood hero. How could anyone read his script before production and be like, yeah turning Luke Skywalker into an old a-hole is a great idea. Luke never leaves the f'n island! HE NEVER LEAVES THE ISLAND. So many missed opportunities!
I read spy reports that there was going to be this big battle at the beginning of the film on Luke's island. Kylo Ren and the knights of Ren tracked the millenium falcon to the island and they straight up have a huge battle with Rey, Luke, Kylo and his knights. That would have been AWESOME! But no, it's Rey and Luke having bitter conversations for what seems like most of the film. On my second viewing of the film, it was much worse. Rey and Luke should have had at most two scenes on the island discussing the force, blah blah, teaching Rey, blah blah, then on with the adventure!
The way they ruined the mysterious Snoke character was another terrible decision. He's killed not even halfway through the film. That's it, he's just some dead alien dude now. Ughhh. No one tried to talk Rian out of this? Disney has fired many star wars directors but kept Rian Johnson!!!??!?!? There is no way Disney will give this guy his own SW trilogy, just don't see it happening.
Leia was overly represented in this film. She was in it too much. I love Leia but come on, she was knocking on death's door during production and it actually shows. JJ handled the Leia character great in TFA. Just enough screen time. In The Last Jedi, Leia is the boss on a headstrong mission to retreat. She can barely speak, her voice was shot. So after Leia goes mary poppins, a lesbian feminist is put in charge. Which is odd but OK. This new idiot lesbian character doesn't tell anyone her plans, not even the guy who saved everyone in the last film. She just shuts him down, when all she had to do is tell Poe her f'n plans from the beginning, bad filmmaking 101. The audience wasn't surprised they were annoyed.
This film is like 4 acts, all suck but 4 acts nonetheless. The final act is on Crait, it's cool looking but dumb. The overall look of the film was great, Rian has a good eye, but lacks in the story department.
I won't even mention the other subplot of Finn and that pudgy asian chick going to a casino planet to rant about rich people and social justice, not making this up. It was all for nothing, all of it. Oh wait, it set up some random boy who has the force at the end. Dumb. Finn was somewhat interesting in TFA, but in TLJ, he's got nothing. He battles Phasma, another useless character. Phasma is no Boba Fett.
This was a tedious, over long film, that lacks energy, suspense and excitement. True Star Wars fans are not wrong when they say this film ruined the SW movies. I'm hoping JJ can pull a miracle with episode 9. Maybe Episode 8 was all dream and Luke is still alive, lol. The Last Jedi is EASILY the worst Star Wars film, no question. The prequels with all of its flaws still had a better story and felt like Star Wars movies.
Boo Rian Johnson, boo.