Failures .. and more failures

Rating: 4/10 (22 March 2018)

Without dwelling much into the original trilogy or the prequel trilogy, lets talk about the rebooted versions. I liked The Force Awakens reboot. It had all that nostalgia which I associated with Starwars plus awesome CGI and action sequences, even though the story was exactly "A New Hope". I was actually looking forward to this second instalment hoping that it would keep all the new awesome things from Force Awakens but give us a new story and not just rehash Empire. What we get is a mis-mash of unconvincing story-lines and disappointment after disappointment for the entire duration of the film.
First the story line, we all wanted to know answers for why Luke abandoned everything and exiled himself when the resistance desperately needed him, why Ray has that special connection with the force and her actual story, who Snoke was and how he suddenly became all that powerful with multiple death-stars and fleets of army and followers!! I though all ended hunky-dory in the Return Of the Jedi and the empire was crushed. So this film does answer a few of these questions, but none of them are strong enough to develop a liking towards these characters or agree that all the decisions these characters make are justifiable. The reason for Luke's exile is just plain dumb and he changes his mind in an instant with a few broken sentences from ghost Yoda, who by the way still has powers to physically alter events even after his death!
Ray's backstory was just a single line and the cosmic connection between her and Kylo was just painful to watch. Snoke on the other hand is all powerful and manipulates minds but still cannot guess a simple mind change which his apprentice has. And there is no explanation whatsoever about how he is suddenly all powerful and is the master of the galaxies!!
Second, the disappointments!! My god, this film is full of them. No plan the resistance makes it successful until the last scene. They keep loosing and loosing with very-very minimal success throughout the entire very-very lengthy 152 minute duration of the film!! This is really painful and frustrating to watch. (Feels like Negan has jumped ship onto the StarWars universe and is tormenting the heroes with his success!!)
Every plot which the resistance makes fails. Heavy spoilers here guys so please watch the movie before reading my review. The first big plan to recklessly continue fighting by Poe Dameron results in heavy loss, of both people and battle ships. Then then next hyper-jump escape fails with Empire quickly catching up and blasting away Resistance's ships. Then the whole sub-plot with Finn and Rose for finding the code-breaker fails, Ray's plan to infiltrate and change Kaylo's mind fails, the resistance's plan to jump to smaller ships and escape fails and nearly their entire crew gets wiped out and finally, their blast door, their almost last hope, falls in fraction of seconds!! The title for this film instead should have been "StarWars - Empire Crushes The Resistance"
I, like the rest of us, like to see victory even though there are initial failures by the good side. But when the good side falls over and over, it really is damn right frustrating. Similar was the case with Rogue one. It was like the writers started the film using this principle - everyone/everything from the good side must die in the end, so lets all build the story, drama, etc. and then crush them in the last moments of the battle. Lots of the deaths were really unnecessary in Rouge One, but ya, the characters never get mentioned in the trilogy, so lets kill then all, one by one! Not the force or the resistance can do one little thing to protect them!
And now lets talk about the force, the film makes really took liberties here. Force can now send a 3D projection across the galaxy and it is not just a 3D projection, but a projection which can stop the lightsaber attack but still it can pass though the body without causing any harm! Force can now act as an intergalactic FaceTime with touch and feel capability. Almost makes the whole message in a droid thing pointless! Then, the most ridiculous of it all, Jedi, even after being dead, can exert powers and destroy things. So why don't Yoda, Obi-wan, Anakin and other deceased Jedis gang up and rain thunder bolts on the Empire!! This liberal use of force was plain stupid!
Finally, guess I will have to talk about the positives, even though it doesn't alter my perception. The CGI and cinematography is near perfect. We get some decent performances by the lead cast especially from Daisy Ridley who seemed to have groomed a lot since the first film. She no longer looks like this skinny, weird kid instead looks like a beautiful woman hell bent on learning her place in the struggle and keeping the dark side out. And finally, Princess Leia, she is a delight to watch in every scene and will be sorely missed.
So, in conclusion, J.J should have made this film and not pass on the mantle. At least The Force Awakens, despite being the same story as New Hope, was fun to watch. Lets hope, they make it up in the grand finale in 2019. My New Hope to see an exciting StarWars film still remains afloat!!