A poor attempt at moving the Star Wars series forward

Rating: 4/10 (20 December 2017)

"THE LAST JEDI
The WALT DISNEY COMPANY reigns. Having decimated the Star Wars source material, Rian Johnson deploys his Disney fanboys to defend the numerous plot holes and poor script.
Only the band of reviewers stand against the rising tyranny, certain that some critic will return and give an honest review of this movie.
Plans for the Star Wars Cinematic Universe have been exposed. As Disney speeds toward cashing in on the series, the fans mount a desperate escape."
That's the title crawl we didn't get, but it's the title crawl we deserved. I am not a bot, a Russian hacker, or a neckbearded nerd. But I can safely confirm that this was not a great movie, likely not even good, and largely tolerable only due to its visuals and the hope for two and a half hours that some final redemptive act is coming up. Unfortunately this act never comes. Every bit of logic set up in Lucas' original six films is violated. From Leia's Mary Poppins-like float through space, to Snoke's direct Verizon intergalactic-line-of-communication between Rey and Kylo, the Force can now serve as any deus ex machina gimmickry the folks at Disney can imagine. The expansion of the Force mythology could be seen as a positive, except that it is done so haphazardly that it leaves gaping holes in our understanding of the plot. Who is Snoke, and how did he get so powerful? "He's the Supreme Leader of the First Order, duh." What exactly is the First Order then and how did they get so powerful after the fall of the Empire? "They're the bad guys obvs, and the bad rich folks keep building weapons for them". Perhaps the gaping holes in the plot could be forgiven if they were to serve some thematic purpose, but even that is missing. What motivates Rey or Kylo to the Light or Dark sides? These concepts are vague and unexplored in the movie - there are no moral dilemmas, only grandstanding about them. What drives Kylo to the Dark side? "Snoke got to him, it was too late". Really? Anakin and Luke have real and complex motivations in their respective trilogies which are lacking in this movie and are to some extent mocked.
The slapstick humour ("Resistance crank call to the First Order 2017" should be immortalized in stone somewhere), irreverence, and repeated and explicit confirmation that this-is-not-your-father's Star Wars is not only not a brave move by Johnson as indicated by some critics, it is a bold step backwards to a mindless blockbuster series designed to produce another 12 titles for the Disney Company's bottom line at the expense of any tangible message or narrative.