A Fun Star Wars Movie Despite Flaws

Rating: 7/10 (21 December 2017)

You either love Star Wars, or your wrong. So who is wrong here? While the Last Jedi has polarized Star Wars fans, the movie is true to the spirit of overcoming odds against a despotic government.
The Resistance is licking its wounds, especially after a New Order attack. Poe defies orders of Leia Organa and is demoted. Now the Resistance fleet is plodding along with the General Hux and Kylo Wren slowly overtaking them.
Finn teams up with a new character, Rose to attempt to obtain a code breaker who can disable the Resistance flag ship. To do that, they must travel to a casino-type planet to locate him.
Meanwhile, Rey has found Luke Skywalker who is a jaded, old, cynical crumudgeon. He wants her to leave so he can guard the ancient Jedi Temple and texts. He lives off the land and sea. He learns of Han's demise, and sneaks past Chewie to see the Millenium Falcon once again. Artoo somehow rekindles him to help Rey learn the ways of the Force. However, he is full of self-doubt and fear because of his failure in teaching Ben Solo (Kylo Wren). During this time, Rey and Kylo make visits with each other via the Force.
At the same time, Finn and Rose locate DJ, a code breaker who could possibly help them. They return, but hope seems dashed as the New Order slowly closes in on the Resistance fleet.
All the elements come together for both, epic space battles, as well as a planet battle with walkers, and a light saber duel for the ages.
I will get gripes out of the way. First, Leia uses the Force to save herself, but it was pulled off in a cheesy and lazy way. It strained credibility not to her or the story, but to the lazy writing of Rhian Johnson. He also convolutes the plot in Finn and Rose's venture to the casino planet which not only seemed very out of place, but also hindered the plot and flow of the story. Finally, Johnson's writing almost gives us an incredible scene of self-sacrifice, but then derails it for another cheesy, lazy scene.
Fortunately, there are more positives than negatives. Mark Hamill shows some real talent, showing someone so jaded and unsure, that he fears taking on a new student. His acting is superb, besting his performance in The Empire Strikes Back. Also, Rey is a real sympathetic character who wants to do right, but still struggles with her own doubt and fear. What I really enjoyed was how Kylo Wren's character was fleshed out more. We learn of his training with Skywalker and how it went wrong, and of his torn conflict of befriending Rey while despising his Sith Master, Snoke. This part keeps an audience guessing, too, as to what choices Kylo Wren will make. Adam Driver really delivers a great performance on this one.
Also, just like the Empire Strikes Back, we learn a lot more about the Force and what it can do - without the long exposition scenes prevalent in the Lucas prequels.
The ending's ambiguity will leave some fans cold, but hopefully pique the interest of future audiences. Who knows where the Millenium Falcon goes next? Or what will the Resistance do after they are almost decimated? If Johnson continues his partnership with the Star Wars universe, he needs to look to other screen writers for help. However, I still look forward to episode nine.