This could be viewed as the turning point of the franchise

Rating: 6/10 (15 December 2017)

While I am not going to go so far as to say that The Last Jedi was a terrible movie, I do think it failed in basically every way to capitalize on what I thought was an extremely well done "reboot" of the series in the Force Awakens. Yes, JJ Abrams relied heavily on nostalgia and a near retelling of the original movie to bring us back to the universe far, far away, but he did it in a way that you KNEW he was honoring something that needed to be planted correctly after the near abominations that were the prequel movies.
The idea that this was being marketed as the best movie since Empire is laughable. The tension of the Force Awakens is eradicated in mere minutes. The humor is cheap, jarring and unbefitting a saga which gave us the wit of Han Solo. The fantastic characters and their storylines from TFA are cheapened in a way that there were entire subplots that could have been dropped. There were miscasts, reminiscent of Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu. The handling of Luke's Grand re-entrance, while there were some savory moments, was at least a partial dud. The biggest flaw of all was the way that they kept playing with a plot twist that never materialized.
This is obviously my own opinion. There are some redeeming qualities to the film such as the cinematography and some epic space battles (and Rey is always phenomenal). I still really appreciate the actors from TFA, even though I felt like they were done a disservice by the director. All-in-all, I am happy that JJ Abrams will be back to helm Episode 9. Star Wars needs him or it risks turning into what the Pirates of the Caribbean turned into; an epic parody of itself.