It's taken me a while to write this!

Rating: 5/10 (23 August 2019)

First watched this at the cinema just before Xmas 2017. My overall feeling when walking out if the cinema was , and I can't believe that I'm saying this, heartbroken. I'm 38 years old and naturally Star Wars WAS my childhood. I'm not a hard core fan, I can't name every character to ever appear in the film's nor do I hoarde memorabilia around the house. I tolerated the prequels mostly, just happy at the time that we were getting a star wars movie. The Force Awakens gave me everything I ever wanted in a sequel. Absolutey crushed it as a film. I guess it was foolish to think the last jedi could do a 'empire' and match or even surpass the previous film. I don't buy the directors comments about how he had to go In this direction for the sake of the franchise. That is true for most franchises but not this one. Star wars shouldnt be compared to the marvel films, star trek etc. JJ Abrams understands this . It's arrogant and disrespectful to treat it any other way. Parts of the film were ok, too much reminded me of the unessesary set pieces of the prequels. Nobody is impressed anymore by CGI, George Lucas already wowed the world with it and it's not going to happen again. Story wise it just is a big let down. Such a waste for Mark Hamill and Luke Skywalker as a character. I mean it's Luke Skywalker! Can't believe I've waited over 30 years for him to return and he's just been demoted to a grumpy old man. The best part was the flashback of him and that lasted less than a minute. Even the final hurrah for him, I feel , was added as a compromise, Probably ordered by LucasFilm to just give us a glimpse of what could have been. The dialogue really got on my nerves. Too much attempt at comedy that just sounded like a pale Tony Stark impression. Star Wars is set a long time ago in a galaxy far far away and that is exactly where it should stay. The director should have remembered that and not tried to panda to current trends in the movies. Overall I'm just sad that it was not a good film. Star Wars deserves better and hopefully JJ Abrams can hit it out of the park with Episode 9.