A Mix Up

Rating: Null/10 (22 December 2017)

I just watched the Last Jedi, here's my verdict:
PROS
Daisy Ridley - brilliant actress. Emotional and captivating.
Special Effects - Epic and stunning all the way.
Snoke - engaging and more enigmatic than TFA.
Characters seemed more embellished.
Cenamatography was great.
Soundtrack was great.
CONS
The scene with Rey and Kylo touching fingers should have continued with a romantic kissing scene instead of remaining in this banal platonic attitude.
Depiction of Luke Skywalker - not the L.S. from the original trilogy. Lacking in scope and charisma.
Misplaced humour. Sarcastic remarks kept muddling the tone of scenes.
The nun things on the island - a waste of time.
Pace - Uneven, choppy, cutting between things so fast you can't settle into it.
Uneven tone. Luke Skywalker is dark and moody, Chewbacca kicks his door in and Luke jolly and jokey. C3PO seemed to be ignored by everyone in the film, the theme of C3PO making precise calculations feels long-time redundant now. Luke Skywalker is climbing the sombre terrain of the island, drinks the green alien milk and pulls ridiculous jokey face.
Most of the dialogue is horrific.
On Canto Bight there was a stampede of horse-creatures. Rose delivers her dialogue so fast and with no articulation or intonation - it's just a blast of blurb with no full stops. So when she's explaining about the horse-creatures I couldnt understand a word of what she was saying and made no sense of why the creatures went on their rampage. How can a horse-creature crash through a solid wall in the casino? The scenes on Canto Bight looked more like the Great Gatsby than Star Wars. If the film is set in a Galaxy a long time ago why do the patrons of the casino look like they're from the 1930s?
Too many repetitive scenes - the spaceships being attacked, the spaceships emerging to a sudden stop after light speed. Swooping shots of the island etc.
Does the young boy at the end indicate that future Star Wars films are going to be kids films like Avatar? My God, I hope not!!
Limited story - cutting between 3 scenes - Skywalker, Rebellion and Canto - nothing else.
Ultimately felt like a cheat of the 70s originals. Comes nowhere close to the dark majesty of The Empire Strikes Back. Comparing the two films is a vain attempt at elevating The Last Jedi way beyond the cheap imitation it is.
SUMMARY:
Disney is trying hard to keep the original trilogy burning, they're succeeding but only just. It's patchy and lacks the freshness and charisma of the originals.
Rain Johnson is not the right director to pull this together. He is no Irvin Kershner. Kathleen Kennedy needs to find a new Irvin Kershner or Star Wars is gonna run out of steam within the next 2 or 3 films. The same story is being repeated in every film.
Final Score 6/10.