Publicity Stunt Gone Awry

Rating: 1/10 (2 April 2019)

For a movie that, according to the creators, heavily relies on the subversion of expectations, it seems that these subversions were most certainly not earned. The Force Awakens did an impressive job of reenergising the franchise and adding new mystery and lore to the canon, only to have this movie seemingly 'punish' its audience for ever paying attention to any other Star Wars movie at all.
There is little to no continuity between the two movies, as all of the established plot threads are ignored and it goes off on a wild, pointless tangent that ultimately leads to nowhere whatsoever, meaning almost nothing has changed between the endings of the two movies, apart from our expectations of where the plot was going to go have now been 'subverted'...except they haven't, because the plot and characters weren't even recognisable as how we know them in the Force Awakens and previous Star Wars movies.
The positives consist of the visuals, which are very impressive, however no matter how good they are, they cannot make up for the fact that the very essence of the movie (plot and characters) is completely uncompelling.
These subversions are clearly made as a way to frustrate the audience as that is a hallmark of Rian Johnson's style - dividing an audience. They purposefully did the complete opposite of a direct continuation, and made an unrelated film but with the same characters (who, at times, were not even the same characters they had been in previous movies). I do not know why they did this, but it has not pulled off, and the movie is nothing but a disappointing addition that few actually wanted.