Star Wars: The Last Jedi can only be surmised, for me, as a disappointment.

Rating: 6/10 (25 February 2018)

I'm not exactly sure what everyone else watched, but this is certainly no masterpiece. I've seen words like risk-taking, bold and edgy being thrown around. Bold? Gimme a break. There's more boldness in the Times New Roman font. This instalment has evidently, looking at aggregated scores, polarised viewers. And I can see why. In this episode, the rebels attempt to flee from The First Order and it's up to Finn to retrieve someone to help them infiltrate their primary ship. Meanwhile, Rey tries to convince Luke to help the rebels and train her in the Jedi religion. That's pretty much as grand as this chapter gets. Where is the grandeur!? Where are the stakes!? Why am I not on the edge of my seat! No matter how aesthetically pleasing the visuals are, the constant feeding of nostalgia and the inclusions of a few memorable scenes...it doesn't make a film great. This episode is weighed down by underdeveloped characters, sluggish pacing and pivotal elements that are rushed. I have no doubt in my mind that Rian Johnson's directing style was glorious, in fact the technical aspects to The Last Jedi are outstanding. Visually I cannot fault the effects that are used and also appreciated the use of puppets and animatronics, particularly the Porgs which are bound to make Disney a fortune. Various memorable scenes, such as a cruiser lightspeeding into another ship, make for some general entertainment. But, I can't shake off the fact that I was bored. It took nearly half the film's runtime to get going and become interesting. Kylo Ren is the most intriguing character with plenty of internal conflict. Adam Driver gives a perfectly good performance, full of emotion beneath his eyes. I can see it! They just didn't explore his character arc or utilise him to his maximum potential. The Force Awakens introduces us to these fascinating bubbly characters that are just utterly wasted in this. I'm uncertain about "bold" choices regarding Leia, Snoke and Luke...but even so, I wasn't enthralled enough to care.