Total Disaster: Not worth the paper the ticket was printed on

Rating: 1/10 (20 December 2017)

As much as I wanted to love this movie, it utterly failed to deliver on so many levels. Disney, in all its previews, advertised the film as a serious epic focused on Luke, Rey, and Kylo Ren, with no doubt some appropriate comic relief as always. What they delivered was a farce-tripping over itself with excessive and ill-timed humor such that no scene could ever be taken seriously, even ones that were intended to be. That combined with frenetically paced scene transitions, too many new characters, and wasted sub-plots (casino scenes), meant the main story and characters were left undeveloped with few burning questions answered. The main premise, equivalent to a slow motion car chase with the First Order chasing the Resistance until they run out of fuel, was absolutely ridiculous. Perhaps most unforgivable of all was the treatment of Luke Skywalker. While initially promising, his diminished role and ultimate end were insulting to his character and inconsistent with everything we know about him. Shame on Rian Johnson.
In the end, Disney got lazy and knew that no matter what, they'd make a ton of money off people who want to see a huge lightsaber fight and lots of space battles with big special effects. They forgot that lots of people actually like movies that, on top of all that, are written and produced with enough thought and care so as to not appear like a fifth-grade homework assignment put together 30 minutes before it was due.
Not worth the paper the ticket was printed on.