Interesting parts of the film's predecessor are viciously stamped out of the plot, and what is left is too contrived and thematically confused to stand on its own.

Rating: 6/10 (26 December 2017)

NO SPOILERS:
I am not a Star Wars fan boy. In fact, my introduction to the franchise was with the prequels. Being of a younger generation, the magic of the original trilogy is lost on me. I can absolutely respect the phenomenon the original trilogy was at the time of their release, and the impact they have had on the movie industry.
Enter 2015's The Force Awakens: J. J. Abrams, riding off the success of similar sci-fi adventure films- Star Trek and Star Trek: Into Darkness, is set to direct the reboot of the Star Wars franchise with a sequel to the original trilogy. With J.J. Abrams directing, I had faith that TFA would be at least, an enjoyable adventure film. To my delight, TFA was a successful reboot of the Star Wars franchise, introducing a cast of new, dynamic, interesting characters in addition to the older, supporting, less interesting ones. Despite the latter half of TFA following way to close to the plot of A New Hope, TFA overall was a great film introducing many new exciting characters and elements to the Star Wars universe.
In addition to many other problems, perhaps The Last Jedi's most monumental flaw is its disregard for its predecessor. Many plot elements foreshadowed or alluded to in TFA are stamped viciously out of the plot in TLJ- and what is left over is too contrived and thematically confused to stand alone.
SPOILERS:
For the past two years, fans of Star Wars have been speculating on the origins and identify of Snoke, the identity of Rey's parents, the reason for Luke's isolation, who the Knights of Ren are, and a whole slew of other theories. All of these interesting plot elements introduced in The Force Awakens are eviscerated in The Last Jedi. Personally, I am incredibly bothered by ignorance to continuity in film. As many other critics and fans online have said, Rian Johnson throws away the vision of JJ Abrams' new Star Wars trilogy as unceremoniously as Luke Skywalker comically tosses his father's light saber over his shoulder off a cliff.
Not all of these elements need to be explained, or tie into the plot and history of Star Wars. Rey does not need to be a Skywalker or a Kenobi, and her parents having no significance is actually subversive of a common film trope that all main characters in a film's universe must be related or have strong connections.
However, completely ignoring all the foreshadowing and elements introduced in the film immediately before this one is just poor film making. It creates zero payoff for viewers that have paid attention to these questions. And while this problem very well could be attributed the change in directors, it is still not an excuse.
Ignoring the ignorance to The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi still has many flaws, but also some strengths.
If I could attach a theme to this film, it would be one stated by Yoda: "failure is the best teacher." This is something I actually really liked in the film. The plans and actions carried out by each of the main characters in this film are very, very poorly thought out. And this is fine, if you address in the film that they are indeed poor plans. In fact, it is subversive of film tropes and refreshing to see in mainstream movies. While not completely embracing the flaws of its characters' actions, this film does let its main characters make mistakes, and acknowledges it. Poe's mutiny, Finn and Rose's trusting of a shady character, and Rey's confidence in turning Kylo Ren, all end in failure. Unfortunately, only one of these character's actually learn a lesson from their mistakes as Yoda mentions: Poe. Poe learns that being a hot-headed action hero is not always the answer to the problems set before him, and ultimately learns to be more level-headed, much to the pleasure of his in-film mentor, Leia Organa.
Poe's arc in this film is undoubtedly the best part. He tries something, he fails, he learns, he grows. Can that at all be said for the other characters? Perhaps, but are the lessons they learn even worth learning?
Finn learns about classism(?) and what the rebellion means to people across the galaxy. Rey- the film's main character- learns aboInut moral ambiguity(?) and the line between good and evil. But do their lessons affect their actions, or cause a change in their character? No, at least not in this film.
Ignoring continuity flaws, The Last Jedi's largest hindrance is pacing, and how the entire middle act of the film is based on absolutely contrived plot developments.
This film starts off with a space battle. It ends after about 10 minutes with a victory for the resistance but at the cost of many lives and battleships. The very next scene... is another space battle. There are cutaways to scenes of Rey and Luke, but it was a very poor choice to have two of the exact same type of scene right after another in the main plotline. This second space battle occur because the resistance discovers that the First Order can track them through light speed. General Leia is bait-and-switched killed (ugh) and then rendered unconscious. The main characters then rationalize that they can escape if they can destroy the tracker on the first order ship. To do this, they need a master code breaker.
At this point in the film, the pacing takes a dramatic and confusing turn. While most of the main cast is being chased and attacked by the First Order, Finn and new character Rose go off on a side plot on a casino planet to find the code breaker, so the other characters can escape. It feels very awkward to have part of the cast fly off to do an entire side plot in the time that the rest of the cast is being chased an exterminated.
Meanwhile, back in the "chase" plot, it is revealed that Leia's 2nd in command has no plan to escape. Poe, in his hot-headed, take-action style, commits mutiny and takes over the ship to buy time for Finn to get back and destroy the tracker.
About an hour later, it is revealed that Finn's side plot to get the code breaker, and Poe's mutiny were both pointless since Leia's 2nd in command actually did have a plan the whole time- but for some reason neglected to tell any of the main characters about it. This reveal, while redeeming Laura Dern's character, renders about an hour of the movie pointless. Why didn't Laura Dern's character tell Poe about her plan? Because if she did then Finn wouldn't have gone to the Casino plan to learn about what the resistance means to normal people! It is an incredibly contrived hour of filmmaking, and very annoying to any viewer that can pay attention.
All in all, the The Last Jedi is an enjoyable space adventure film that expands the story of the Star Wars Franchise with new and old faces. However, the story and themes fall flat as it abondons what was setup in its predecessor.