A Total Betrayal of the Star Wars that George Lucas created

Rating: 1/10 (7 January 2018)

I could spend so much time talking about this movie, but I will try to keep myself contained. Nonetheless, I have never, ever in my whole life been so disappointed by a movie.
This movie made me depressed. Basically everything that you loved about the original characters, the force, the Jedi, the continuity and style... it's either gone or altered in a severely stupid way.
1) The portrayal of Luke Skywalker in this film is a complete betrayal of his character. A while back (and many times after) Mark Hamill claimed that he fundamentally disagreed with every choice Rian Johnson made for his character. The optimist, iconic hero, and true symbol of good is turned into a grumpy old man who wants to end the Jedi order and die. This is a grumpy old man who would also consider killing his own nephew. What true Star Wars fan wants to see this? It honestly just made me sick that the creators would take this route 'to be different'. This is the same character who wouldn't kill his father, the evil lord Darth Vader, because he believed there was still good in him when literally no one else would. This proves to me two things: Rian Johnson is not a true Star Wars fan and is willing to take risks just for the sake of taking risks, even if they completely destroy the continuity of this beloved franchise. How great to know that even after everything he's been through in the original trilogy, my favorite hero has had a depressing life and spent many years alone on an island, ditching his friends and wanting to die. Only to come back for a lightsaber fight against Kylo Ren which doesn't end up happening. Seriously, this could have been the fight of the ages. It's set up sooooo well before he reveals that he's actually just a projection and he's still on the island... and he dies because too much force I guess. Are you kidding me?!?! That's how LUKE SKYWALKER goes out?!?! Shame on you, Rian. This depiction disrespects Luke Skywalker, Mark Hamill, and every other true fan of Luke and Star Wars.
2) The humor in this film is cringey at times and so so out of place for Star Wars. I hate the way comedy is used in films these days. Every meaningful moment is replaced with some cheap and honestly stupid joke. Its an easy way out of comprehensive story-telling for writers where the audience goes "he he" and forgets what was even happening. It's the type of humor that breaks the fourth wall and won't be funny in any way the fifth time you watch it. So disappointing to see this lazy Marvel-esque style comedy in Star Wars.
3) The plot is just weird. It's another factor of this movie that just felt lazy--- like it was planned out just to make certain events happen. The problem is nothing makes sense. The whole film is a slow, drawn-out "chase" scene between the First Order and one large Resistance ship. I'm still confused about how an entire fleet of Star Destroyers led by a 60 kilometer wide dreadnought flagship was able to follow this Resistance ship for hours upon end and not completely destroy them.
4) The Finn-Rose plot is so horribly stupid and frusturating. The two (who by the way have no chemistry at all) are sent on a mission to find a 'codebreaker' who can disable the First Order from tracking them through hyperspace. They arrive on Canto Bight, the casino planet, the mission dies and everything goes downhill from there. Basically Rose lectures Finn, who is initially loving the place, about how the rich take advantage of the needy blah blah blah capitalism is bad. I HATE going to movies and being taught a lesson. Maybe there's a time and place for it, but not in fantasy movies. And Star Wars? Go die Disney. The whole time I was watching their story I was basically just thinking about how much a waste of precious Star Wars time it was. But hey, "it was worth it" because they got to save the weird space horse creatures.
5) Another disappointing part of this movie is the Rey lineage reveal. In the past Rian Johnson has spoken about how JJ Abrams basically "set things up" for him in The Force Awakens and how he really had total control to take the story where he wanted. My instantaneous question to that is WHY?? That seems like a really terrible way to create a fluent story. And it shows... But many people seem to still be okay with it. In fact, some seem to believe that Rian Johnson's decision for Rey to be a nobody fixes many aspects of Star Wars. The new message is that story is no longer focused on the Skywalkers, and anyone can be just as powerful as they were.
This movie confirmed to me that Disney sadly only cares about the commercial and financial aspects of Star Wars. They are very much aware the cultural impact that this franchise has had on people. This film continues Star Wars for the sake of continuing Star Wars. It's story is designed to "shake things up" and continue to bring the "Star Wars" name and brand to front and center. But in doing so it throws much of Star Wars out the window. Original characters are changed, built-up ideas are just thrown away, story continuity is messed up... The prequels were better than this because the story felt real, meaningful, like the creator's intent was about how this Star Wars story could logically make sense given what has come before. Everything felt like it still existed in a galaxy far, far away. The prequels were different, unique, and surprising. They did however, lack in several other areas. But they felt like Star Wars. The Last Jedi did not.