frustrating. so so frustrating

Rating: 1/10 (14 December 2017)

The Last Jedi was a film with so much potential, but in the end it fell short of the mark with poor character motivations and unnecessary scenes. To say that The Last Jedi was bad would be wrong, I enjoyed large sections of it and found myself on the edge with many scenes, with well crafted suspense, and subversion of expectations, but it was deeply flawed as a film.
Starting with the opening scene, within a minute we are thrown into an exchange between Kylo Ren and Poe Dameron which reaches cringeworthy levels of cheap humour, setting the tone for much of the rest of the film. Little lines of dialogue which had been reserved for just Finn as the comic relief in TFA now have been dished out to all the characters, with a particular stand out being a jarring line from Luke, during a heartfelt scene with Rey, undermining the entire scene and the connection forming between the two.
Mark Hamill was quoted as saying that he fundamentally disagreed with Rhian Johnson's character choices for Luke, and whilst I enjoyed the moral struggle he toyed with, the character was quick to change his previously principled stance on not training Jedi, despite signs that Rey was seduced by the same dark forces that Kylo Ren was years earlier, with Luke even commenting on this not minutes before his change of heart. His rationale seems questionable at best.
An appearance by bad CGI puppet yoda seemingly adds nothing to the film particularly, and after an exchange with Luke he disappears again, leaving you scratching your head as to why he was even there in the first place.
Finn and Rose's daring plan which constitutes the middle third of the film sees them travel to a casino to find a master coder. Ah the casino, it somehow feels very George Lucas, the glitzy glamour, the sparkling clean setting, just waiting for a Jar Jar cameo as I get vivid prequel flashbacks. In a 2 1/2 hour film there is no need for any filler but this whole plot seems unnecessary and time wasting, when the plan eventually leads to nothing. There isn't any great character development and bar a brief cameo from a criminally underused character, Captain Phasma, the endeavours of Finn and Rose are actually mildly boring. The chemistry between the two never quite seems real, and much of the time their more emotional moments are subverted by BB8 providing unnecessary humour.
A very touching moment came when Kylo Ren resisted the opportunity to kill his mother, adding to the moral dilemma which had troubled him in the previous film. However he forgot to notify his ensemble who still open fire on Leia and the rest of resistance high command, blasting them into the cold, inhospitable reaches of space. An abrupt but ultimately poignant end for Leia, and for the best, wrapping up the character before Carrie Fisher's untimely death in 2016. But nope! An alive Leia force pulls herself back into the ship in what might just be the most jarring scene of the film, which is saying something.
Rey is drawn to Kylo Ren due to her belief that he can still be turned after a series of incredibly cinematic mind links. Upon arriving in Snoke's ship, Rey is escorted to him by Ren in a scene paying great homage to ROTJ, before arriving on the nicest looking Star Wars set, Snoke's room.
After all the moral qualms we've seen Kylo battle with, it shouldn't be entirely surprising that he turns against Snoke and kills him, however to kill off the evil mastermind mid way through the second film is a very bold move and thus still catches you off guard. The subsequent fight between Snoke's guard and Rey and Kylo is magical, well choreographed, and set against stunning scenery. It was my favourite moment of the film. However quickly it becomes clear that Kylo and Rey want different things so after their little fling they have a bitter disagreement and break up.
Snoke's death, while being a bold move, seems premature as absolutely no questions surrounding the characters were answered, clearly a highly skilled force user, but no more information given before he is cut down, and thanks to his death it seems that these questions probably won't be answers at all. The death paves the way for Kylo Ren to then be solidified as the chief antagonist of the trilogy, however this comes just as he sides with Rey and shows that his leanings aren't entirely black and white and he isn't an innately evil character. This poor character development then further confuses as by the final third he is once again an evil baddie, wanting to hunt down and kill every last resistance member.
The final third sees our gang take on the first order on the ice planet of Hoth *edit* the salty planet of not Hoth. The spectacle is amazing and the stakes are high. Soon enough, Finn is moments away from sacrificing himself in a noble bid to save the resistance, but along comes Rose to stop him, almost killing herself in the process, and seemingly dooming the resistance. This "heroic" act doomed the lives of the resistance fighters and thus drives me to actively dislike Rose, Rhian Johnson totally failed with this, making it one of the bigger shortcomings of the film
Luke comes to the rescue, wearing what can only be described as your mothers poor attempt at a comicon Jedi robe, and after being fired on thousands of times and presumed dead, he emerges from the smoke and the dust, unharmed. A then underwhelming fight, especially given the previous one in the film, pits him against Kylo Ren, before it is revealed that he isn't actually there and it is merely a force projection. However, due to the mental toll of this, he becomes one with the force moments after, in a beautiful shot reminiscent of him looking out over the two moons of Tatooine. A beautiful end to the film.
It isn't the end however, after brief moments with the resistance aboard the millennium falcon escaping, we cut to a young stable boy, who has the force, where he watches a space ship jump to hyperspace. *prequel Jedi youngling flashback* This unnecessary ending dampens the somber mood which has been created by Luke's death, and leaves me with a sour taste coming out of the film.
Overall the film wasn't awful by any stretch, the acting was superb from Adam Driver and Mark Hamill in particular, but I would still ask questions about Daisy Ridley's slightly wooden performance. We got a brilliant lightsaber fight and some of the best space battles to date. There were major twists which I didn't see coming, and certainly no one could expect the film to flow the way it does.
The entire middle third, focussing on getting the ship out of the way of the first order could've been cut down to reduce the run time, and some Finn and Rose moments could've been significant shortened, especially when their plan doesn't even work and only results in the first order realising the real resistance plan.
I enjoyed to film, that isn't in question, however they missed the perfect opportunity to kill off Leia, they relied too heavily on cheap throwaway gags, many scenes were unnecessary, and character motivation seemed all over the place.
With the death of Snoke, the first order just doesn't seem threatening in the same way as the empire, and thus at the conclusion of this film the resistance doesn't feel particularly threatened quite in the same way that the rebels did at the end of ESB, and it didn't feel like it was building up to a bigger finale all.
For the pure enjoyment of it and the amazing scenes, it's possible to overlook much of the flaws, so I'd rate it a 6/10, on par with Rogue one but beneath TFA and the OT.