A Wasted Opportunity

Rating: Null/10 (24 December 2017)

It was this movie's duty to expand on where The Force Awakens left the state of the Star Wars universe, & also to patch many if it's predecessors plot holes.
It fails on every front. There is so much wasted potential here that it is heartbreaking.
*Possible Spoilers*
Every character in this film fails at everything they do. Both sides of the conflict are inept at their jobs (with the exception of Rey, who is as preternaturally gifted at everything as she was in TFA, without explanation. This destroys any interest in this character as there is no risk involved with anything she does.)The First Order is wildly incompetent at being an effective military force, as is the Resistance, who are plagued by some of the worst leadership ever created in fiction.
Instead of deepening & expanding the new characters that TFA introduced, brand new characters are needlessly shoehorned into the story, taking up screen time that would have been better used further blending the new heroes with with the legacy characters. This trilogy should have focused on making us genuinely care for the passing of the torch to these new protagonists, and it instead falls flat.
The humor is forced, clumsy, & unnatural rather than honest, poignant, & circumstantial, which was the charm of the original trilogy.
Disbelief is promoted rather than suspended by blatant disregard for grade school physics.
The movie is plagued by extremely lazy & uncreative writing throughout. It is a disjointed & illogical mess. Everything it tries to accomplish could have been acheived easily with some sincere, clever writing & the entire film would have been cohesive & epic.
I am flabbergasted that this script & final version of the film passed the creative filter at Lucasfilm.
They have alienated at least 50% of their fanbase. This is a dire situation for the franchise to be in.
If reports are true on how much extra footage was shot & how many different takes on these scenes is true, then I find it hard to believe that a better movie didn't make it to the screen.
A waste of time, money, talent, & opportunity.
Note: I created this IMDB account specifically to rate & comment on TLJ. I am not a bot or a troll, merely a very disappointed fan who has grown up with this franchise through it's highs & lows. This is a sad state of affairs for me.