Worse than the Phantom Menace

Rating: 4/10 (1 January 2018)

I had been looking forward to this for some time and I was hoping that at least some of the answers to the questions raised in The Force Awakens would be answered in this instalment. Fans had been speculating for months about the plot of this film and unfortunately far from what was expected. I will go through the problems with this film.
1. It does not take itself seriously: A plot that does not take itself seriously is not believable and therefore we cannot escape into the universe of the film, that was true with this movie, with misplaced humour and mocking tenants of the Jedi faith which were once held sacred, such as when Yoda destroys the sacred texts, makes me believe that Rian Johnson is deliberately trying to destroy the very foundations of the Star Wars story. I have made this criticism about Dr Who ever since Stephen Moffat took over, it has failed to take itself seriously and therefore failed as a TV show, the same is true with Rian Johnsons star wars. At least in the Phantom Menace the Jedi mythology was taken seriously.
2. Luke is a miserable old man: Mark Hamill was right to criticise the direction Luke Skywalker has been taken by this film. Luke has just given up, he is not hiding in the hope of training new jedi to right passed wrongs, instead he just wants to die and initially refuses to train Rey. He was also considering murdering his nephew because he sensed some darkness in him despite having successfully redeemed Darth Vader from the dark side in Return of the Jedi. The character of Luke in the original trilogy was someone who would not give up and sulk away in the way this Luke has.
3. Snoke is wasted potential: As a fan I am downright angry at Rian Johnson for essentially saying that one of the best characters from The Force Awakens (and a Character whose identity has been speculated on for the past two years) doesn't matter. Killing him without any indication of who he is or what motivates him is downright insulting to fans and this was a calculated attempt at fan disservice. I hope he comes back in Episode IX as surely someone as powerful as Snoke has been made out to be cannot die so easily.
4. Rose is the new Jar Jar Binks: When I saw Rose turn up I hoped she would only be in the film for a few minutes and then get back to whatever it was she was doing, instead we have to watch this uninteresting and annoying character for about an hour and a half. She does very little other than get in the way and prevent Finn from making a noble self sacrifice which would have been a fitting end for his character as there is nowhere left to take him at this point.
5. Why didn't Admiral Holdo tell Poe the plan: After General Leia is injured Admiral Holdo takes command of the resistance fleet. There is tension between her and Poe which at first I found quite interesting as I thought she might be a first order spy trying to sabotage them, Poe then stages a mutiny which fails and Leia tells him that they plan to retreat to the planet Kryat, this has the effect of rendering the whole mutiny subplot pointless and cringeworthy, if Holdo just told him the plan there would have been no point to this sub plot.
6. They should have killed Leia: There were two very good moments where they could have killed Leia, the first was when the bridge of the command ship was blown into space, the second was when one person had to stay behind when all the shuttles were launched it should have been Leia and she should have been the one to pilot the command ship into the first order fleet, that would have been a brilliant send off. Due to the passing of Carrie Fisher Leia will now have to be killed off screen.
7. The casino planet sub plot: I did not find this as bad as some other people have but I do feel it was pointless filler content.
8: Where was Anakin Skywalkers ghost: I had heard rumours that Hayden Christensen was on set filming scenes and so I had hoped that Anakin's ghost would appear but he didn't. It would have been good to see how Luke would interact with his father after Return of the Jedi but I guess we won't see that.
9: Why does Luke's projection use the blue lightsaber: I was hoping to see Luke use his ROTJ green lightsaber, instead he uses the blue one which Kylo Ren and Rey had just destroyed, this makes no sense whatsoever. Why didn't Kylo sense something was wrong since he had just snapped that lightsaber in half. It seems very strange to me.
10: Why does Luke die: There really is no need for Luke to die at the end. I didn't think him projecting himself was as bad as many fans think but I would assume the whole purpose of him doing so was so he would not die but if he dies anyway then it's pointless.
11. the grey Jedi. I expected Luke to become a grey Jedi as in someone who makes use of both light and dark in balance with each other, thus fulfilling the idea of bringing balance to the force, I thought the books which turned out to be the jedi sacred texts were in fact the journals of the whills, the whills being force users who can balance both light and dark. This would have been a great direction to take the franchise in and it would have got more people interested for the next film, however they failed to do this and I don't really care about what happens in the next film. I have completely lost interest in the future of this trilogy.
Good parts about the film: I give this film four stars as it explores the relationship between Rey and Kylo Ren very well. Kylo Ren is by far the most interesting character in the movie and his conflict between the light and the dark is explored. Rey's parents being nobody's is quite good as it shows the force is not hereditary.
Conclusion: Rian Johnson should not be allowed to direct any more Star Wars films, the new Trilogy has potential but it needs someone else at the helm. I would not even be against the idea of George Lucas coming back as this film shows that it's better the devil you know than the devil you don't and the prequels are a masterpiece compared to this