This is not going to go the way you think

Rating: 7/10 (20 December 2017)

Star Wars :- The Last Jedi
*Spoilers*
A highly enjoyable movie going experience in a Star Wars gift box .
This is not going to go the way you think....
The lights dim, the certification screen appears ... followed by the twinkling Lucasfilm .
It is happening ... a new Star Wars film continuing the story that started since before I was born & Luke Skywalker is in it .
The familiar fanfare & crawl .. not a whiff of trade taxation routes in sight . So far so good .. the crawl basically tells us what happened in The Force Awakens.
It starts off with a bang , straight into a space battle , Poe Dameron character introduction by brazenly flying straight ahead & requesting to be put through to General Hux & a jokey exchange ensued . It felt like a strange start to go straight for the humour , this movie is full of the unexpected though with a lot of what was set up in Force Awakens answered , albeit unexpectedly.
There is then a sacrifice of one of the bombers lives .. (the last remaining bomber) the sister of the character Rose who we meet later . This was a powerful scene & the sacrifice of her life to destroy the dreadnought is mirrored at the end of the movie by Rose . This battle shows the recklessness of Poe , who wants to shoot first & ask later .
Then we are introduced to the Mysterious Snoke who manages to rag doll Hux through a hologram (he gets thrown about a lot in this instalment)
Turns out while the resistance may have taken out the Dreadnought they were actually now being tracked by the First order . After resistance makes a jump to lightspeed they realise that the first order can now track them through jumps , so it would be a waste of fuel to continue to jump .
This makes up one of the main plot lines & is also the one with most plot holes , it felt like the first order could have taken out the resistance ship much sooner by simply calling on more ships & heading them off .
The first order plan is to simply wear them down & pick them off one by one until the main ship runs out of fuel. So basically a car chase in space where both were travelling same speed & just waiting on the tank to get empty .
The other part that bothered me watching it was the side quest that Finn & Rose went on . Whilst getting chased through the Galaxy by a massive imperial .. ahem first order starship .. it is possible to zip away unnoticed to another planet to find a code breaker , they managed to free some slaves & the animals used for racing ,get arrested & thrown in jail , meet Benicio Del Toro character DJ who just happens to be a code breaker & also seemingly could have escaped himself at any time .perhaps he was waiting there for his next mark .
They can go in this whole side mission to another planet & get back to the resistance ship & then still carry out the main part of the mission which entails getting aboard Snokes ship to destroy the tracking . Phew ... this whole mission was a failure & resulted in more people dying later due to being double crossed by DJ . This whole section could have been cut or trimmed extensively.. story wise it would have been avoided by Laura Derns character , Holdo , being a bit more forthcoming with the plan .. but then Finn wouldn't have anything to do.
It turns out that the plan was to sneak away when they were as close as possible to the old rebel base on Crait.
One of the most anticipated scenes from the intentionally misleading red herring trailer was Kylo Ren training his sights on his Mother's ship (General Leia) He decided against it .. but his wingmen has other ideas & opened fire .
Cue Leia being blown into space & seemingly killed . It felt that it was a possibility at this point that Kylo could save her & maybe begin his redemption arc towards the light ... but no .. Leia used the force to pull herself back to the ship. It did seem odd to watch this but there was no gravity & wouldn't have taken much force to nudge in the right direction .
Questions & answers-
Rey & Luke
What everyone was waiting for . What happens next after Rey hands Luke the lightsaber ... it was completely unexpected , he threw it over his shoulder & wandered off . This isn't the Luke Skywalker we were looking for .. he is old grumpy & doesn't seem too interested in the Jedi or the ways of the force . This whole section draws parallels with the Empire Strikes Back , when Luke goes to find Yoda.
Who is Rey's parents ?
They are nobody .. not Skywalker or Kenobi .. it is revealed by Ben Solo that Rey parents sold her when she was young & were never coming back . This is an important message of this film that you don't need to have Royal blood to be special. It is mirrored by the ending scene of the slaves on the Casino planet using the force & showing the symbol of the resistance . I got the impression that Kylo Ren knew something in the force awakens when he force chokes the commander " WHAT GIRL"
The same goes for Snoke .. all of the theories were out of the window as he was killed mid way through . No real answers to find , however that does make it more real .. the more the characters are connected the smaller the universe becomes . Think Anakin building C-3PO as an example .
The standout moments were Luke meeting with R2D2... it was a short scene but it was instant childhood right there , the old grizzly Luke melted away & he was the farm boy from tatooine. R2 also sucker punched him by showing the first clip of Leia "Help me Obi wan Kenobi ..your my only hope"
The throne room scene with Rey Ben & Snoke . Kylo says "I know what has to be done ..." mirroring TFA scene with Han.
& he kills Snoke . An amazing lightsaber battle folllowed with Reylo fighting side by side & for while it lasted it was amazing . It seemed he was Ben Solo again...
Then the old "join me & we will rule together " happened & they were back to being Rey & Kylo , Ben Solo was gone .
Yoda appeared as a force ghost & it was amazing . It was the crazy Yoda of old . "Patience Young Skywalker"
The whole film was tense and full of twists & a lot of great moments .
The final showdown between Kylo & Luke was interesting as it showed the force being used in a way that I haven't really seen before . When Luke showed up I knew something was up as he looked younger & had shorter (and darker) hair .
I turned to my wife & was like "why is Luke young?"
They had a short battle , mostly dodges by Luke & Luke said ala Obi wan . "If you strike me down in hate I will always be with you ."
The final shot of Luke when it's revealed he isn't actually there on Crait & is actually force projecting was amazing & a great callback to Star Wars with Luke looking out to the twin sunset & then disappeared like Yoda.
Luke must return as a force ghost in ep9 especially since Carrie Fisher will not be in it .
The acting was great by all involved , in reflection it wasn't as tight as the force awakens. The side mission was really what let it down for me , any time that was happening I wanted to get back to see what was happening elsewhere . There was a great scene at the final battle though where Finn was going to sacrifice himself to save everyone & at the last minute was saved by Rose . This mirrors the sacrifice earlier by Rose sister .
Some are rating this as the worst Star Wars film ,lower than Phantom Menace & Attack of the Clones .
I would place this (if forced) just under TFA
Side note Porgs are better than Ewoks
Here is my order
Empire
New Hope
ROTJ
TFA
TLJ
ROTS
AOTC
TPM