Bewilderment and Disappointment

Rating: 1/10 (17 December 2017)

What makes this movie so bewildering is that it's driven by contempt for Star Wars. Rian Johnson and Disney go out of their way to mock, belittle, dismiss and undo the magic, the mystery, the richness and the wonder of Star Wars. And, the really weird part is that they sacrificed plot, character development, drama, intrigue, tension and basic narrative structure to do that. I just don't get it. This movie is a cynical and self-congratulatory act of sabotage.
Even if you forget about the broader Star Wars universe, this movie fails miserably as a sequel to The Force Awakens, which I thought was a strong (albeit derivative) starting off point for a new trilogy. The Last Jedi not only doesn't follow any of the cues set up in The Force Awakens, it blatantly subverts and ridicules them. The result is a jarring and deeply unsatisfying mess of a middle chapter that doesn't resonate emotionally and doesn't advance the established story.