"It's time for the (last) Jedi to end!"

Rating: 1/10 (28 December 2017)

I love Star Wars. I was born six days before the release of the original; the Saga has been part of my life. I love the characters, the story, and the imagery. I love the behind the scenes history, influence on filmmaking, and cultural impact of the films. I grew up playing with the action figures, collecting the Topps cards (with dusty, razor-sharp shards of "gum"), eating C-3POs cereal, listening to the "You will know it is time to turn the page when you hear Artoo-Detoo beep like this" records, playing the Nintendo games, wearing the shirts, reading the Expanded Universe, riding Star Tours, experiencing the Renaissance of the mid '90s. Star Wars was something that defined me.
And then I saw "The Last Jedi".
This movie is insulting to a loyal and invested fan base. It is blatant arrogance to proclaim "Let the past die" when so many like me have been dedicated supporters of a franchise that permeated so many aspects of our lives. Star Wars is inextricably part of our past. To "let it die" trivializes the foundation of what has allowed these films to still be made 40 years later. Further, the filmmakers defend the poor reviews by blaming the fans for not embracing the desecration of our collective past.
"The Last Jedi" is a fever dream version of Star Wars. It negates everything that came before it, including it's immediate predecessor. While "The Force Awakens" was a pale imitator of the original, "The Last Jedi" is so unlike any other Star Wars movie. Yes, there are superficial similarities: character names, weapons, ships. Gone is the grand, overarching story with historical and mythological undertones. Gone are the universally applicable lessons of overcoming selfishness and anger through maturity and sacrifice. Instead, we are given contradictory messages that only suit the plot (arms dealers are bad, but they supply the good guys; Admiral Holdo can sacrifice herself to save the Resistance, but Finn can't because of some line about not fighting the ones we hate, but saving the ones we love).
Like "The Force Awakens", character arcs are destroyed - characters are unrecognizable. Luke Skywalker, beloved hero of millions, is reduced to a pathetic coward just to justify Kylo Ren. Chewie, Artoo, and Threepio are reduced to props.
I imagine that fans like myself get movies. We understand how fickle we are; we want something new, yet love our nostalgia. We get that the older characters should make way for new ones. But not like this. This tells us to jettison everything we love without offering anything better in its place. It's the same silly hubris that Disney pulled with the old Expanded Universe (the Legends); they proclaimed it all "non-canon", then gave us garbage like "Aftermath" as replacements. Yes, most of the video games, comic books, and novels were pretty bad - but they all had their fans! Star Wars really doesn't belong to any of us! We all played with our action figures differently as we created our own adventures and interpretations of the characters.
But Rian Johnson comes along like the rich kid who has all the toys and immediately tells us what Star Wars is or isn't?
I know this is a long, meandering review. But I hate this movie because I love Star Wars. And I refuse to let Kathleen Kennedy tell me how to play with my action figures!