A Wasted Opportunity

Rating: 4/10 (19 December 2017)

Never have I left the cinema with so many mixed feelings... this film reminded me of the Matrix sequels in that - I desperately wanted to explore and enjoy the universe, but the vapid, clunky plot and unspeakably tedious, ludicrous, overdrawn action sequences left me almost forcing myself to try and enjoy what was unfolding in front of my eyes. That being said - while I can understand the hateful backlash from thousands of Star Wars fans, it still has redeeming qualities.
PROS:
-Nostalgia. While I also fundamentally disagree with the way they treated the chartacter of Luke, it was still exhilirating to see him back in action, and Mark Hamill did a great job of executing his poorly written character. And I got a tear welling up when he meets Laia.
-Rey - Kylo relationship. I have mixed feelings about both these characters, but the development of their relationship was one of the strongest aspects of the movie.
-Technical execution. TLJ has a weaker plot than the prequels, but it is unquestionably superior in terms of effects, cinenatography etc. There are a fair few visually impressive moments, such as the red/white planet at the end.
-Red Guard fight. A decent fight scene, not a classic, but it was one of the stronger moments.
-Snoke's sparkly dressing gown. Yes this did turn the previously mysterious arch-villain into borderline-comic-relief.. but amidst the 10,000 poor attempts at jokes this was the one thing in the whole movie that actually made me laugh...
CONS:
-The Middle Finger to the Original Trilogy & TFA.
I can understand the hate from the hardcore fans, there was something about this movie that was deeply offensive to the original trilogy, and even to TFA.
I could go on at length about this movie's inherent disrespect to the original trilogy... making the force far too free & easy, the heavy-handed application of what was once a mysterious power, the obscene trivliasation of the whole concept of Jedi's in the first place...
Perhaps even more significantly, is its trashing of the TFA. All the interesting plot-threads set-up in TFA get whimsically brushed away. I had little issue with TFA being a reboot of ANH, but most of the characters that were kinda interesting in TFA became irritating and dull in TLJ, which leads me to...
-Jedi Training Island. This constantly perked my excitement whenever it came on-screen, especially as the space-chase & meaningless side-plots were so boring and drawn-out. There was huge potential here, but it was constantly poorly executed. The backstory behind Luke's cynicism is incredibly weak, he comes across as about as naive as he is at the start of ANH. The whole "the jedi must end" thing made absolutely no sense. I enjoyed some aspects, but its hard to see why such a crucial aspect of the story was dealt with in such a sloppy manner.
-Finn & Rose. Finn started off as an interesting character in TFA, but he is barely developed beyond that. Fine if he is to be a one-dimensional character, but if that's what he's going to be, he doesn't need anywhere near as much screen-time. The casino trip was boring, Rose saving Finn at the end was possibly the stupidest moment in star wars history.
-The Plot. There's not much . Even the prequels easily out-do TLJ in terms of plot. Clever Surprises are good, but TLJ mostly prefers to indulge in endless CHEAP "twists".
Respect the Universe you're working with, cut-down the incessantly boring/unnecessary non-Jedi plot by an hour, put some more thought into developing the Luke-Rey-Kylo stuff so that it stands up to more than 5 seconds of critical analysis and does justice to the Force & the Jedi, and this could be a halfway decent movie (oh and cull that weak slapstick humour, almost as insufferable as Jar-Jar).