Oh well...

Rating: 2/10 (17 December 2017)

A vicious, cruel deconstruction of the very core of the Star Wars Mythos. Rian Johnson seems to have been hell-bent on destroying everything that I love about Star Wars. This movie is tragically flawed on many counts, an empty copy of Empire Strikes Back, absolutely lazy plot construction, bending the rules of the Star Wars universe to fit his desired narrative rather than crafting a narrative that conforms to 40 years of Star Wars history, and the most gawd-awfully contrived and forced plot twists that they become so repetative that when really good twists show up..my only reaction was.. okay... another twist..
But the true crime of this film is its near sadistic treatment of Luke Skywalker, and the Original Trilogy. for 34 years I've waited to see the answer to the question of what happened to Luke after the Battle of Endor. I'd read several EU books which certainly got Luke's character pitch-perfect even if I wasn't always fully enamored with a particular plot.. at least it was Luke.. but with Disney wiping away the EU I was looking forward to seeing my childhood hero facing new challenges.. creating a new and improved Jedi Order, facing down new threats, internal or external.. instead Rian Johnson felt it more appropriate to break Luke. Literally break him. Turns out that after saving his father, bringing balance to the Force and restoring Hope to the Galaxy, Luke's life then became a veritable hell.. leaving him so crushed, disillusioned, consumed by guilt and self-loathing that he exiles himself, cut off from the Force, spending the rest of his life waiting to die while consumed with unimaginable guilt and bitterness.
Then, if that's not enough, by the time credits roll, RJ has literally wiped away the entire Original Trilogy. Not an exaggeration. Virtually everything that our heroes fought, struggled, sacrificed and persevered for is destroyed.. completely.. and totally..
Rian Johnson's vision of Luke Skywalker is cruel. It is mean. He takes the central tenant of Star Wars, where idealism, perseverance, sacrifice and heroism can win the day against tyranny, that basic idea of staying positive and fighting evil even when the cards are against you, can eventually win the day.. and replaces it with a nihilistic shrug that the struggle against tyranny is destined to fail.. that the good and the moral are destined to be defeated
Lost in all of this are some truly great ideas.. new story fragments which flutter in the shadows are actually quite interesting and compelling.. the confrontation between Rey and Ben are executed in a shockingly clumbsy way, but at their core are actually interesting and engaging.. yet completely lost in the sloppy mess that is the attack on everything I grew up admiring and loving.
Disney, Kathleen Kennedy, and Rian Johnson have succeded in doing what I once thought impossible.. making me not care about the next chapter.. there is literally nothing left for me to care about, or root for.
I left the theater as broken and forlorn as Luke waiting out his days to die..