Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Spoiler Warning: ‘The Last Jedi’ Isn’t the ‘Star Wars’ Movie You’re Looking For

When I walked out of last Monday’s press screening for ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ and heard just about every other critic gush over the film’s supposed greatness, I thought, “Well, here we go again. I’m going to take a lot of heat for not liking this.” However, now that general audiences have seen it and are making the same complaints that I have, I’m starting to feel vindicated.

Beware, major plot spoilers lie ahead.

After seeing a polar opposite reaction between my opinion of the film and those of fellow critics (‘The Last Jedi’ currently sits with a 93% favorable Rotten Tomatoes score, I felt like the problem might be me. I’m not ashamed to admit that a second viewing of a bad movie can make me change my opinion (see ‘Rogue One‘), so I picked up a ticket to an opening night showing to see if I’d change my tune. Unfortunately, while I found more good things in the movie with a second viewing, I still couldn’t see past the glaring issues.

With that, I’d like to walk you through the good and the bad of ‘The Last Jedi’. I won’t nitpick the tiny dumb things, like X-Wings flying through explosions as if there wasn’t debris amidst the space flames; Poe manually turning off his comms so he could disobey General Leia’s orders without getting an ear-full yet instantly using his comms to call in a bomb strike; Luke’s unnecessarily dangerous pole-vault fishing style; the line “I wish I could put my fist through this whole lousy town”; stealing a ship from an arms dealer who just-so-happened to create every recognizable vehicle since ‘Episode IV’; a black version of BB-8 that doesn’t serve a purpose in the story but serves a major purpose in Disney’s marketing scheme; a scene revealing that a huge Resistance ship cannot fly on autopilot, but is actually flying without a pilot in this exact scene; two characters that attempt to say “May the force be with you” at the same time but stop mid-sentence to laugh at the rom-com-ish moment, etc. Instead, I’ll focus on the things that really worked and the big things that really didn’t work.

Let’s start at the beginning.

Laugh It Up, Fuzzball

The scroll title sequence explains that the Resistance is about to evacuate its secret base because the First Order found them and are in pursuit. Just as the entire Resistance gets away, the First Order shows up to wipe them out. A solitary X-Wing approaches the Star Destroyers, hails them, and proceeds to crack a joke that falls utterly flat. Poe Dameron (a.k.a. Maverick) pulls the old “Can you hear me now?” gag, accompanied with a mom joke, so he can get some sort of unexplained reading from the ship he’s about to single-handedly render defenseless against close attacks. Considering the emotional elevation that ‘The Force Awakens‘ ended with, starting ‘The Last Jedi’ with a bad joke is a terrible way to begin a 150-minute movie. It’s also an indication of the type of lame misfit comedy that’s been injected into the whole thing. ‘Star Wars’ has primarily contained dry humor, but for ‘The Last Jedi’, it feels like Disney pulled a Warner Bros. post-production stunt (which also happened to ‘Rogue One’) by hiring a Marvel writer to infuse the same style of humor and gags from an ‘Avengers’ movie. It simply doesn’t work.

We don’t need Poe Dameron cracking “Your mom” jokes. We don’t need to see Luke Skywalker drinking from Nessie’s nipples. We don’t need Luke pranking Rey by telling her that the tickle of a blade of grass is actually the feeling of the Force. We don’t need to recreate scenes of ‘Problem Child’ with Rey tormenting uptight nuns. We don’t need Yoda showing up and acting like the sassy housekeeper from ‘Billy Madison’. We don’t need Finn to exclaim the type of one-liners that are usually written for Will Smith. “Oh, come on!” We don’t need a misleading shot of what appears to be a landing spacecraft, but is really just a silly steaming iron coming in to press the First Order’s laundry. (Was that a pot-shot at the once-attached, but since-fired director who used the same comedic trick shot in the opening of ‘Jurassic World‘?)

The style of humor ultimately undermines the film’s emotional impact. Whenever we’re in the middle of something big, we get a joke. ‘The Force Awakens’ ended with Rey extending Luke’s lightsaber to him. To revisit that scene and see him comically toss it over a cliff ruins the punch of the prior movie’s ending. When the Puss n’ Boots Porgs are the least distracting form of comedy in it, your movie has some problems.

One Good Thing

Three main stories flow through ‘The Last Jedi’. Only one of them is any good, but that one is very good once we get out of the fluff. Which one am I referring to? Well, it isn’t the casino planet filler. And it certainly isn’t the low-speed space race with a glaring plot hole. I’m talking about the Rey/Kylo dichotomy.

Every scene that bounces back and forth between Kylo and Rey is perfect. Had the entire movie focused on them, I would have been the movie’s biggest cheerleader. Even then, the first half of the story would have be changed because everything that happens with Rey and Luke on Dagobah Island is utterly pointless. Watching Rey follow Luke around like a puppy is as boring as it sounds. Plus, Grumpy Old Man Luke isn’t any fun and doesn’t ultimately have anything to do with Rey’s progress. Every time they start a “lesson,” it quickly ends with Luke storming off. Rey learns nothing from Luke. In fact, she learns from Kylo. The only good stuff that happens on the island are the scenes where VoldemortSnoke causes Rey and Kylo to merge minds. It’s puzzling and it brings out a great dynamic that doesn’t exist between any other characters in the movie. Once she leaves the island and the two end up in Snoke’s ship together, the Rey/Kylo plot finally hits its potential – but we’ll come back to that.

Lots More Bad Things

I thoroughly enjoyed the Finn character in ‘The Force Awakens’. Having him be a Stormtrooper defector who wants to run away from danger and heroism was an excellent choice. However, he’s written to be nothing more than comedic relief in ‘The Last Jedi’. Making matters worse is his subplot, which includes duplicating both aspects of his character. Finn is a sidekick character, yet here he’s given a sidekick of his own. He’s also now completely dedicated to comedic relief, but he’s accompanied by BB-8, who also only offers up more comedic relief. The icing on the crap cake is a secondary story that involves BB-8, Finn and his new buddy Rose (a character that was obviously written for Patton Oswalt) traveling to a casino planet on a mission to locate and hire the “Master Code Breaker” (that name is just as original as “The Keymaker” in ‘The Matrix Reloaded’) to get them onto Snoke’s ship. Not only are they unsuccessful in hiring the Master Code Breaker, but they settle for a random stuttering dude they find in a jail cell. Why? Who knows? But the CGI-heavy escape sequence that follows is so bad that it’s the film’s equivalent of the needless pod-racing scene in ‘The Phantom Menace‘, without the fun. What an awful subplot.

Growing up in Southern California, we watched many live high-speed chases on television. As kids, there was nothing on broadcast television that was as entertaining. The only times we would change the channel were the low-speed chases, so to see one happen for the entire duration of ‘The Last Jedi’ is pretty disappointing. When the only other-worldly adventure in a ‘Star Wars’ movie involves horse races, animal cruelty, slavery, casino mayhem and a literal “fat lady singing” – all because the main plot is dedicated to a low-speed chase – the screenplay is seriously lacking.

Technology has advanced to the point where the First Order can now track a ship’s location after it heads off into light speed, so the Resistance has no way of outrunning the Star Destroyers and Snoke’s massive ship. So, how does the Resistance get away? They stay out of range of the First Order ships. But… umm… wait a minute. Couldn’t the First Order just speed-up and close the gap until they were in range to take out the Resistance? Apparently, despite Snoke smashing General Hux’s face for not immediately blowing up the Resistance, Hux decides to merely follow them and wait until they run out of fuel. How convenient. When it comes to plot holes, this is one that I simply cannot overlook. Making this plot even more needless is a pointless mutiny created by Poe. The only reason this mutiny happens is because of a lack of communication. Poe’s wild card reputation precedes him, so the general should have known that he would do something crazy, but if she had shared her plans, then his character wouldn’t have had anything to do in ‘The Last Jedi’, and Disney can’t let that happen when there’s Poe Dameron and X-Wing merchandise on the line.

All stories converge when Kylo brings Rey to Snoke, Finn is captured by Phasma in front of the Flux Capacitor-looking device that allows the First Order to track the Resistance at light speed, and the Resistance ship is about to run out of gas. I enjoyed a lot of what happens from this point forward, but it’s also chock full of problems.

I liked ‘Brick’ well enough, but Rian Johnson’s only truly excellent film is ‘Looper‘. His lack of skills show not only in the writing of ‘The Last Jedi’, but in the direction as well. When Rey and Kylo team up to kill Snoke and all of his redshirt guards, the movie hits its pinnacle of audience excitement. However, this sequence is shot in such a subpar way that it isn’t nearly as fun as it should be.

Think back to how great the climactic snowy forest saber fight in ‘The Force Awakens’ was. It was shot in a way that made it engaging. But this scene is shot with a spinning Michael Bay-esque camera style. I’m sure a great fight was choreographed, but it’s bland and disjointed on-screen. Just as disappointing is John Williams’ score, which does nothing new. Hell, recycling the “Dual of Fates” track would have made this scene much better. Then, what really kills the mojo of this should-be stellar moment is what follows. Rey and Kylo talk. His philosophies about the Jedi and Sith needing to come to an end sound exactly like Luke’s. And while he poses no threat in this moment, she decides to draw on him. This makes no sense, especially considering she has seen something good in him (even if it was just a trick of Snoke’s). Both have potential to switch alliances, and they know that, yet she draws on him in a non-threatening moment? I don’t get it. And I especially don’t get why they Force-fight over a single saber when another one (and half a dozen other weapons) are on the floor around them.

Next up, we have the Resistance abandoning ship. With a secret rebel base hidden in an abandoned salt mine on a planet that’s right outside the window, the Resistance make a break for it in their unshielded escape crafts. The interim general stays aboard the ship that doesn’t have autopilot, but also doesn’t need anyone in the cockpit to fly it. This convenient – or should I say inconvenient – plot point results in the main Resistance cruiser flying straight into Snoke’s ship at light speed. The result should be exciting, but one of two things happened: Either Johnson decided to get artistic (for once) with the direction, or he ran out of budget and had to settle for inserting several panels of concept art in place of the finished visual effects. (Disclaimer: I want to point out that both times I saw ‘The Last Jedi’, jackass members of the audience decided to yell “Oh, shit!” during this completely silent moment. Once someone does that, you can’t unhear it. Every time I see that moment, I’m always going to hear those two obnoxious a-holes. I must acknowledge that my dislike of this directorial choice may result from that.)

Just before that moment, surrounded by hundreds of Stormtroopers, Finn and Rose are about to be skinned by Phasma, who conveniently walked her prisoners far from where she found them and held off on causing any physical harm until the exact moment the ships collide. When we come back to this scene after the collision, Rose and Finn are somehow all alone in the now-fiery landing bay. Phasma and the countless Stormtroopers are all missing, until they perfectly march out of the smoke and fire towards them. Just when they’re about to meet their fate, as R2-D2 did in the prequels, they’re saved by BB-8, who has commandeered a First Order Walker and begins firing on the soldiers. Watching this, I couldn’t help but remember oil slicks and other childish ways that the droids aided the heroes in the prequel films. Just when I thought the movie couldn’t do worse than BB-8 shooting automatic-fire coins during the casino sequence, here comes BB-8 in a Walker.

Although we’ve now been through three climaxes, Johnson decided that wasn’t enough. With Finn, Rose and BB-8 now at Helm’s Deepthe single-exit rebel base with Leia, Poe and the few surviving Rebels, they have to survive an AT-AT and TIE Fighter attempt to breach the cave door. Of course, hermit Luke takes a trick from Loki’s overused playbook and shows up in hologram form. Along the way, he also uses his new Force magic to somehow give a pair of magically disappearing rear-view mirror fuzzy dice to Leia following a conversation that sounds like it was written by George Lucas in the early 2000s. As bad as the dialogue is, it’s only half as bad as Carrie Fisher’s tone-deaf delivery. Both she and Mark Hamill deserve so much more than ‘The Last Jedi’ has to offer.

Kylo falls for Luke’s trick right before Luke becomes one with the Force and disappears like Obi-Wan, which is such a lame way for Luke Skywalker to (supposedly) exit the franchise.

12 Questions

We’re now more than 2,000 words into my rant, so I’ll pose to you the same questions that ‘The Last Jedi’ left me with before I wrap this up:

  1. Why did Rian Johnson feel he had to fake-kill Leia?
  2. Why did the visual effects look so terrible when Leia used the Force to “WALL-E” herself back into the ship?
  3. How do Rose and Finn know how to single-handedly pilot mining vehicles and intergalactic spaceships?
  4. How do Rose and Finn know how the brand-spanking-new First Order’s tracking technology works?
  5. Are there any other First Order space bases that Finn cleaned that might help him save the day in the future?
  6. After turning Ben into a monster, did Luke think that he shouldn’t clean up his mess?
  7. If Yoda can use the Force while in ghost form, does this mean that all Force-users can come back and use it?
  8. Will Luke, Anakin and Obi-Wan return in ‘Episode IX’ to fight as Jedi Force ghosts?
  9. When Snoke yells “It’s tearing you apart!” to Kylo (in reference to Kylo killing Han), in your mind did you hear Tommy Wiseau yell “It’s tearing you apart, Lisa!”?/li>
  10. Could Domhnall Gleeson possibly chew any more scenery?
  11. Is it in the Millennium Falcon’s contract that it has to fly through caves and tight spots in every movie?
  12. Is the Force-using slave child in the last scene a Newsie?

I don’t care that Rey’s parents are (supposedly) nobodies. I don’t care that the big bad villain, Supreme Leader Snoke MacGuffin (that’s his full name), is only in ‘The Last Jedi’ for two-and-a-half scenes and receives absolutely no backstory, despite his character being built up so much. All I care about is a little quality.

A friend’s podcast points out that Rian Johnson’s ‘The Last Jedi’ doesn’t feel like ‘Star Wars’ canon, but like fan-fiction that you could find for free in any unofficial geek forum. I agree with that. It feels like Johnson created everything he ever wanted to see in a ‘Star Wars’ movie instead of making the sequel that ‘The Force Awakens’ deserved.

The best thing about ‘The Last Jedi’ is where Johnson decided to leave it – not because it opens the door for something great, but because it’s in a place where absolutely anything can happen. J.J. Abrams has a clean slate to work with for the next episode. He can take it anywhere he wants. He can right the wrongs of ‘The Last Jedi’. I understand that many don’t like the way his writing style raises big questions and leaves them unanswered, but with ‘Episode IX’ being (supposedly) the final chapter in this third trilogy, here’s hoping that the MacGuffins and misdirection and convoluted storytelling and wasted fluff of ‘The Last Jedi’ are left behind.

One of Yoda’s last lines in the movie is, “Failure is the greatest teacher.” If Disney learns one thing about ‘The Last Jedi’, I sure hope that’s exactly it. While this movie won’t be a box office failure, it’s a critical failure for all of us watching closely.

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125 comments

  1. dargo

    So many people review this film as if it’s a book report for school that they really don’t want to do.
    I can rip apart any film ever made if I use same logic as this reviewer. Bet if it was in French with subtitles he would like it a lot more or was filled with drug addicts and totally depressing to watch.

  2. Deaditelord

    I voted it’s pretty good, but has a few flaws. Luke picked my two issues with the film, although I was able to overlook them as I enjoyed almost everything else. Those two are:

    Why didn’t The First Order hyperspace jump half their ships ahead to stop the Resistance from running?
    Why are the lightsaber duels in this film (and The Force Awakens) so dull when compared to the original and prequel trilogies?

    • Return

      The lightsaber duels are weak compared to the others, because the creators of Star Wars was not on the case! They did not want Lucas involved and this is what they come up with! They seem to want to show them the crap they made as if they want his approval. Leave him out of it if you wanted him out of it.

  3. Ken

    Good God. Could not disagree more with… well, everything written here.

    Here’s my take on the themes of the movie, and part of why I enjoyed it so much…

    (Spoilers, obviously.)

    “The Last Jedi” is a film about learning from failure, and about breaking the illusion of the “hero” to become a true Leader.

    Every main character fails in this movie.

    Finn and Rose fail to disable the tracking device in Snoke’s ship. (In fact, their mission results in Benicio Del Toro’s character revealing the Resistance transports to the First Order.) Their impossible mission of a small group of “heroes” to save the Rebellion – something we’ve seen many times before in Star Wars – not only fails, it costs many lives.

    Poe Dameron, at the start of the film, is a “hero” who thinks he can solve every problem by taking on the enemy head-on and hopping in an X-Wing. He doubts Laura Dern’s character and her leadership and mounts a mutiny. It’s only at the end that he realizes his own mistake.

    Rey tries to turn Ben Solo, like Luke did with his own father. She fails in trying to repeat the past.

    Even Luke Skywalker, broken from his failure as a mentor to Ben Solo, sees that heroism has come with an incredible price. The entire movie is in the shadow of that failure.

    What I love most about “The Last Jedi” is how it uses our archetypes of the typical Star Wars hero and breaks them. We’ve all seen the impossible mission to save the Rebellion succeed, we’ve seen the trigger-happy flyboy save the day, and we’ve seen even the worst characters turn to the light.

    None of that happens here.

    All of the most well-intentioned, heroic plans in this movie fail, and we see every character learn from that failure.

    Heroism itself is an illusion.

    And even Luke, making his last stand against Kylo Ren – and the entire First Order, single-handedly – appears as an illusion in order to save the Rebellion.

    Honestly, him facing down the First Order and maybe pulling a Star Destroyer out of the sky WOULD have been fan fiction. And the movie plays with that expectation.

    But, subverting expectation just for the hell of it isn’t good storytelling… Those challenges MUST have an impact on the characters themselves. And EVERY character in this movie learns from failure, and becomes a Leader by the end.

    Hell, even Kylo Ren did what Vader couldn’t and defeated the effective “Emperor.” He’s more dangerous now than Anakin ever became.

    Sorry for the long post. Yoda said it better to Luke by the burning tree, and in less words.

    Also, a side note…

    I love that Rey doesn’t come from some grand lineage of Jedi. She comes from nothing, like Anakin.

    I love how this movie breaks the self-important pretensions of the series – like Luke tossing the lightsaber over his shoulder – and in doing so, makes me so excited for the future.

    And to any naysayers, yes, the message of the movie is complex and a bit of a downer. I’m sorry it didn’t live up to your expectations.

    But you still got incredible space battles, lightsaber duels, and tons of humor. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but it’s packed with fun. And it’s still very much a Star Wars movie.

    I loved it.

    • Chapz Kilud

      I suppose Jesus came from nothing too, like Anakin. Anakin was the chosen one in the jedi prophecy. The point was some individuals have more affinity to the Force than others. Even with some jedi nonsense from Phantom Menace, it’s safe to say based on the first 6 movies jedi isn’t something that can be self-taught. If we can assume Rey received very little training, Luke said he couldn’t go up against the First Order, it’s a bit silly to believe Rey can….

      I couldn’t care what they did with Rey. I think for her to come from commoner is fine. We don’t have to put a lot of weight on the lineage. But the fact is this movie tried every way to mimic Empire Strikes Back, and failed miserably. I thought seeing familiar ideas and watching another death star blown up was bad in Force Awakens. But Rian provided analogous elements in ESB into Last Jedi. The story was terrible to begin with, but I’d given him some point for originality but he definitely wasn’t thinking outside the box.

      About what you said about failure, I don’t disagree with it. But in military sense, you’re not going to mount a comeback with just a Millennium Falcon and a few dozen people after they had established that there is nobody around. The only way I can see an out is if JJ Abrams fast forward the story 15 years, leave things unanswered about how the New Republic procured a fleet of cruisers and multiple squadrons of ABXY wings, and perhaps those force sensitive kids grew up to be part of the equation.

      Despite the possibility of coming back as a ghost in next episode, even Mark Hamill thought it was a very bad idea to kill off Luke. I’m sure First Order is shaking with the thought of upcoming battle with Rey, Poe, Finn, and Rose. Harrison Ford didn’t like the story which is understandable. I don’t think any old school like the story with an average of one iconic character killed off per movie (probably more considering Admiral Ackbar was killed too).

      • Ken

        I think minimalizing Anakin or Rey’s “commoner” origins to Christian allegory is a cop-out argument for both the prequels and this movie. I get it the impulse to do so, believe me… but first of all, stories of a “chosen one” far predate Christianity, and secondly, when it comes to Star Wars, it’s just a safe way to say, “Hey, this choice in Episode I was stupid because I went to Sunday school and I know the story.” But I digress.

        Yes, from a military standpoint, the Resistance/Rebellion is limited to few. I think Episode 9 will have to allow for some time, story-wise, to pass before the next chapter begins, I agree. So what? Is it a problem if the story takes place several years later?

        As for what Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford’s opinions are… much as I respect them, I honestly don’t care. Do you need your opinions spelled out for you by others?

        I liked the movie. I am sorry you didn’t. But that’s, like, your opinion, man.

        Empire Strikes Back had a similar mixed response when it was released. Hell, I suspect when Homer wrote The Odyssey, everyone was like, “Hey man, this is NOTHING like The Iliad! F%#k your story!”

        Lastly, this movie has MAJOR structural differences to Empire. But it uses the individual similarities for effect. What else do you expect from a movie that’s building upon 8 previous films?

        Then again, I know nothing I say will sway you. I respect your opinion. I understand the criticisms.

        But know that the things people disliked about this movie are the things I fundamentally loved about it.

        We don’t need to share the same opinions. And at least we’re not debating whether or not Jar Jar Binks sucked… I think it’s awesome we’re having a fundamental, thematic discussion about Star Wars in decades.

        • Chapz Kilud

          ESB had mixed response particular with the shocking revelation of father/son relationship. But it took ROTJ to round it out. To be fair it’s possible for that to happen with Last Jedi and the final episode. But the story for Last Jedi was so bad that, no matter how they try to fix it in the final episode, Last Jedi would still suck.

          Yes. I think JJ Abrams may run out of ideas to fix Last Jedi and resort to fast forward thing. Disney could leave x number of years blank and let future movies fill in the gap. But if you were to grade the trilogy, it would receive a very poor grade based on the way stories were laid out. I’d say poor planning, poor execution, and using Band-Aid approach to cover up major laceration.

          Oh… I did read someone comment about Jar Jar Binks. Some people are beginning to develop tolerance for Jar Jar Binks after watching Last Jedi. That’s according to a couple of reviews I read on Fandango.

  4. I was disappointed by the lack of screen time between C3-PO and R2D2. That might seem minor at first, but I feel their connection is a larger element of the Star Wars universe than that of Leia and Han Solo. They treated R2D2 very well, and some C3-PO bits were pretty funny (get that nervous look off of your face)…but when the two were together, it was a brief moment that felt terribly neglected. It was something like “Hey friend!”…not the typical bit of C3-PO responding to R2-D2 telling him about all his adventures (similar to R2 talking to Luke).

    Considering R2D2 is the only characters to appear in ALL Star Wars movie, I feel he is the unspoken core.

  5. Ryan

    Thank you, Luke, for being one of the few critics to actually have any sense. The movie was simply poorly written, I am baffled by people who can’t see that

  6. BTW, I liked the movie more than the detractors seem to have liked it…but I really disliked the whole “go find the code breaker” story line. It was a real waste of time IMO, and if it was streamlined it could have made for a much more lean movie. My only hope is that De Toro’s character comes back in the next installment to make all those events worth our time.

    • Ken

      I think their FAILURE was the point, regardless of Del Toro comes back or not. Is a storyline only “worth our time” if the protagonists succeed? Finn especially learned a lot as a character as a result of their failed mission in TLJ.

      I don’t disagree that we spend maybe a *little* too much time with the Canto Bight casino 1 percenter storyline… But I still liked it. And I do think it’s clearly setup for the next film. (Which I’m sure will expand on how the whole cycle of war is funded, and also those orphans who are clearly inspired by the stories of Luke and finding their own Force abilities.)

      • You are right, Finn’s scene with Del Toro about how the arms sellers are selling to both sides seems to have an impact on him, and I do think that the kids might have some sort of connection to the next episode.

        Still, when they said, you gotta go and find this guy…I swear it felt like when a video game throws another step kink in your progress to stretch things out. It didn’t feel organic, to need this guy then for that task. I really do hope it is shown to serve a bigger story.

        • Ken

          Well, unless Del Toro WAS the guy they were looking for, and he lost his pin to that other guy in a gamble. Just speculating.

          Honestly, it’s fine. I agree, we spend a little too much time in that storyline, but I still had fun with it.

          I also appreciate a change of scenery (which was also similar in design to the prequels, which I appreciate actually), and a fun action sequence just to break up the more intense drama surrounding it.

          There’s definitely a little bit of a “Sorry, Mario, but the princess has been taken to another castle!” element. I guess I just rolled with it.

      • Ryan

        I think it was a waste of our time because it was BORING! It was uninspired and boring film making. Rose is an awful character, and the whole Master Code Breaker thing was ridiculous, and made no sense

        • NJScorpio

          (BIG SPOILERS…I guess…)

          When Rose kissed Finn and said “I love you” or something, I thought “why? where did that develop?” I later concluded it was a stalker sorta love, because he is famous.

          And yes, all the events there were boring.

          • Ken

            “I saved you, dummy. We’re not going to win by fighting the things we hate, but by saving the people we love.”

            (I think that’s the quote.)

          • NJScorpio

            Ken – Thank you. The I liked the sentiment, and it made sense…it worked…but then it leaned into the signal that Rose loved Finn, and it just didn’t feel earned.

  7. Warner

    I am a big star wars fan but did not really like this movie… after one viewing. It felt like a re make of Empire. Instead of the ice base you had a salt base attack, instead of cloud city you have a casino, instead of being sold out by the cloud city boss, you were sold out by an arms dealer, instead of Yoda training in a swamp you had Luke “training” on an island, instead of Han in carbonite you have Luke “joining the force”. After the Force Awakens was just like “A New Hope” I feel that this new set of movies is really just remakes of the old movies and nothing original is happening. So I’m expecting the third movie to be a remake of RoJ. 🙁

    Also, why do they waste the Leia character? It seems like all she has done is stand in a base that’s about to get destroyed. A New Hope … stand here while the death star targets you. Empire stand here while walkers come towards you. Force Awakens … stand here while the new death star targets you. Last Jedi, lay here in a ship while they shot at you. I mean her dad was Vader, she has the force just like Luke and outside of Return of the Jedi …. she is mostly a standing target.

  8. Jiden

    Slash Film had a great write up for what sets this movie apart (in a good way). The TL;DR is that purging Star Wars from it’s past is its best foot forward (which Luke alludes to slightly above, but doesn’t give it enough credit). I doubt it’ll change your mind, Luke, but it’s where I’m coming from in terms of why I liked the movie.

    http://www.slashfilm.com/the-last-jedi-defense/

    In regard to the humor complaint, I don’t get it. There’s humor and wackiness in each movie:
    – “We’re all fine here now, thank you, how are you?”
    – The introduction of Yoda in ESB (“Aww… cannot get your ship out!”)
    – Pretty much any line from Han in RotJ, and a lot of it isn’t even that good (“Great, Chewie, always thinking with your stomach.”) And if your concern is undermining big moments, I think Han’s lines here are similar offenses (his lame threat to Jabba on the barge, the “I don’t know, fly casual!” during the Luke / Vader shuttle detection, etc.).
    As I said in the other thread, I think most people have seen this stuff so often now that they overlook it, but it’s been there. And what they did in this movie is certainly better than the literal crap in the prequels (Jar-Jar stepping in ooodoo, being farted on, etc.), low bar that that is.

    If you’re pissed about Rey not gleaning much for Luke, I think you can make the same argument for Yoda and Obi-Wan in their time with Luke. I mean, how much does Obi-Wan REALLY teach Luke? Pretty much “stretch out with your feelings” and that’s it. You can argue he gets more from Yoda, but he throws it all away and runs to Vader anyway. I do agree that it’s more fascinating to have Rey learn from Kylo as we really haven’t seen that before. Also, unlike Yoda & Obi-Wan, Luke’s still begrudgingly involved in teaching / using the Force until late in the game. It also coincides with his theme of his failure and regret and not being sold on the idea, and he’s on his own journey here too, so I guess I don’t get this complaint.

    I don’t disagree regarding the depiction of the capital ship chase. I like it in theory, but it could have been executed better. I figure it’s implied that they’re each going as fast as possible without going to light speed, but it’s muddled for sure. But if you’re upset about this, you can find holes like this all over the place in Star Wars (why does the Death Star have to navigate around Yavin in the finale of Star Wars, for example? Couldn’t they just have programmed a hyperspace route around it? Or just blown it up and then shot at the moon?)

    I enjoyed it for what it was, sorry you saw it differently.

    • Luke Hickman
      Author

      Thanks for sharing. I read this story and see what it’s saying, but I still can’t see past the bad. Don’t get me wrong – there’s much to like in TLJ, but I just can’t love it.

      When it comes to Rey’s minute amount of training in TLJ, I think my beef comes down to the fact that the whole thing is set over something like a two-day period, whereas the original were set over a lot of time. Picking up right where we left off created a very limited timeframe for a whole lot of action to take place.

      I’m glad that you liked it and sincerely wish that I could love it the way that many others do.

      • Chapz Kilud

        I totally agree with Luke H on the training part. And we’re supposed to believe that Rey could lift several tons of rocks with very little training, while Luke Skywalker in ESB had trouble lifting a few pebbles. I would argue those rocks Rey lifted were heavier than the X-Wing Yoda lifted in ESB.

        I can accept the fact that Rey is even more special than the Skywalker bloodline. But if that were the case, I don’t even know why Rey needed to go to Luke for training. For the writers to make a laughable attempt to mimic ESB’s apprentice training, and then to do very little other than some backstory of how Ben Solo turned dark… I think they could have done it another way without getting Luke involved, and without having to kill him. Ok so they had to meet because that’s where Force Awaken left off. Why not have Luke point her to recover some Jedi scroll (which seems to be inside the drawer of Millennium Falcon)? You have some adventure going after some ancient jedi training manual. And then I would be more open to Rey lifting several tons of rocks.

        My point is I’m not a writer, but I can think of different ways to go about many things than to copy straight out of ESB.

  9. The Last Spoon-fed-Eye

    This movie is a hot mess and a sad, winking, deconstruction of the established world of Star Wars. I’m so done with the attempt to revolutionize this franchise. The progressive waves of bullcrap flowing through these filmmakers is so toxic and silly it really reminds me of the characters in Dostoevsky’s “The Possessed” (and no, I don’t mean just because they use fewer white actors).

    As for the commenter above who says Heroism itself is an illusion, well, the movie certainly found its target audience. Congrats?

    The Force is not with us, folks.

    • NJScorpio

      Do you progressive as in continuous waves of bullcrap, or progressive as in politically progressive?

      It’s funny because I left the theater with someone (a white woman ) who said, “There weren’t at black women?”. If there were, they were in the background. I pointed out that if they really wanted to incorporate a black woman, they could have done so in place of the purple haired captain.

    • Ken

      Not all heroism is an illusion, my friend. My point is that the archetypes Star Wars has had over 8 previous movies are challenged in this movie, and I liked that.

      So yes, it found it’s audience. I’ll throw you a pity party.

  10. Most of the other Star Wars movies are just as problematic, but nostalgia makes us forget it:

    – The fact that the Death Star has to move around a planet to destroy another one (hello?!) in “A New Hope”
    – They attack the rebels with big, slow moving AT-ATs on Hoth instead of a a flurry of fast-moving TIE fighters in Empire.
    – We get both a Sarlacc “burp” and a Tarzan yell (from Chewie) in ROTJ.

    And don’t get me started on the prequels.

    Truth of the matter is, there have always been huge scientific plot holes in Star Wars (that’s why it’s labeled as fantasy and not sci-fi), and this so-called new style of humor isn’t new at all…it was in the Original Trilogy and JJ’s movie as well (Lucas went more slapstick in the prequels).

    • NJScorpio

      I rewatched Phantom Menace the other night…and the humor was terrible. Some of the actually story elements were more enjoyable than I remembered, but the humor was SO much worse than anything in TLJ.

    • Ryan

      I get your points about Empire and Jedi….but I’m not really with you on A New Hope. As a stand alone movie, you simply assume they don’t have the energy to destroy two planets. A very small detail.

      While the new movie is absolutely riddled with nonsense

    • Return

      Of course a moon sized battle station would have to move around another planet in order to get a clear shot!

      Tie-fighters would move too fast and not get a clear shot and AT-AT’s move easier in the snow! Disney clearly thinks that AT-AT’s are a fan favorite (my guess, since it was in EMPIRE) which is why they used them. Just the same way they used the two legged ones in Jedi.

      TRUE Star Wars had a purpose, but fake Star Wars makes no sense.

  11. Collin

    What I did enjoy, is Luke’s arc. I can believe that he wants to retreat and be self-critical. I believed him when he was critical of the Jedi’s hubris and vanity. I enjoyed that Rey helped him wake up and return to his destiny.

    I liked some of the twists and turns as well and I enjoyed the “that’s the force” joke. I think we all make the force out to be so Holy that maybe we need a joke or two.

    I do feel like this movie should have been an “Old Republic” movie with entirely new characters. An old Jedi master (who is not Luke) is sought out by a young learner.

    This kind of felt like a Japanese-style mythological movie or maybe a mini-series crammed into one movie.

  12. NJScorpio

    I might be asking the obvious here but…the reason why Yoda didn’t care about torching the books was because he knew Rey took the books with her (without Luke’s knowledge), correct?

  13. Ken

    Open question to the thread of people who disliked this movie:

    What would you have preferred?

    Because you can nitpick a movie to death. But I honestly want to know what you would have done.

    Right now, I’m just operating under the assumption that certain audience members would have been disappointed with this movie no matter what.

    • NJScorpio

      First, I must say I liked the movie. I expect to enjoy it more the more often I watch it, like any Star Wars movie.

      But, to your question…what would I have preferred?

      I would have preferred to have kept J.J. Abrahams at the helm. I know he has many detractors here, but he has done some excellent stuff.

      As Luke pointed out, there was a tension that was missing in the light saber duels. I feel there was an overall weight that was missing. There were times where this did not have the proper gravitas. The Force Awakens felt like a ‘Star Wars’ movie through and through. Most of The Last Jedi felt like a really good Battlestar Galactica episode.

      And would all of those awesome scenes between Kylo and Rey as exciting as they were if not for what was established emotionally in The Force Awakens by J.J.?

      • Ken

        I disagree about the lightsaber battles. I mean, Kylo/Rey against the Praetorian guards has got to be an absolute favorite of mine in the entire series. And the showdown between Kylo and Luke (while not REALLY a lightsaber battle because Luke isn’t really there) builds to an epic crescendo, packed with gravitas. And I love how it’s staged like a traditional samurai swordfight.

        And see, to me, TFA felt like a fun, rip-roaring adventure that was an imitation of Star Wars. I won’t say it’s exactly a carbon copy clone of ANH… It’s actually more of a mash-up of the entire OT.

        But to me, Star Wars has always been about taking risks. Even the prequels, for all their faults, took risks. TFA did not.

        It’s still fun. And it was probably the smart move, on the part of Disney. And I give it a little leeway because it did so well (mostly in the casting process) of making me care about the new characters as much as the old. BUT… those new characters were just two-dimensional imitations of the Star Wars archetypes we’ve seen before.

        But in TLJ, we see those characters truly put to the test and come into their own. There’s absolutely no contest for me as to which is the more interesting film (while also being insanely fun).

        I think J.J. Abrams is an excellent director when it comes to staging action sequences and pacing his movies. But he only copies other peoples’ movies (most particularly, early 80’s Spielberg over the course of his career). But he did do an excellent job of establishing this new cast, and in particular, CASTING these particular actors. They have great chemistry.

        But as a story, I’ve seen TFA before. It’s safe, and while fun – it’s just comfort food.

        TLJ is where these characters, for me, became more than fun imitations. They were challenged, tested, and grew.

        • They shouldn’t have even struggled. Absolutely silly that they had problems. You do realize that Rian basically made the guards the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, right?

          Just more Rian garbage. It’s like watching Michael Bay do Star Wars and people can’t see that. Idiocracy was correct, it just gave humanity 500 more years of credit than they deserved.

          Maul/Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan is the best lightsaber battle in Star Wars. Ray Park was such an amazing choice for a Sith Lord and the sword fighting training was amazing.

          • I rewatched TPM the other day…and while the bad stuff was SO bad…REALLY bad…the good stuff, the really Star Wars-y stuff, was GREAT.

            This duel, fantastic. Much better than the ones that followed in the other prequels.

            Also, Palpatine saying to a young Anakin that he is going to keep an eye on him…gave me chills.

          • cardpetree

            “Maul/Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan is the best lightsaber battle in Star Wars. Ray Park was such an amazing choice for a Sith Lord and the sword fighting training was amazing.”

            This is the only redeeming quality from the prequels. Everything else was pretty much garbage.

          • “This is the only redeeming quality from the prequels. Everything else was pretty much garbage.” (cardpetree)

            I also love the ‘Across the Stars’ love theme. What a John Williams masterpiece.

          • NJScorpio

            (In keeping with what we like about the prequels)

            Actually, I really like the federation robot army. They are an example of something that works with the CGI of the time, and I still laugh at “ROGER ROGER!”

            Planet Naboo, while still looking like Windows desktop wallpaper, was a vibrant change of setting for the series.

    • Ryan

      1) Cut out Rose and the Casino subplot.
      2) Stick to what JJ set up in the Force Awakens….mostly, Luke purposely left a map for the people to find him should they need him! Because of this, nothing makes sense about Luke in The Last Jedi. If he didn’t want to be found, and went there to die, HE WOULD HAVE NEVER LEFT A MAP WITH R2!!!!!!!!
      3) Just use more common sense…things don’t happen organically in the new movie. They need Poe to have a storyline, so they have a new boring Purple Hair Lady keep secrets from him (for no reason, other than to manufacture false drama). It just makes no sense.
      4) Speaking of making sense, let’s take out the entire slow chase, and the hyper speed tracking….it opens up even more plot inconsistencies (just warp in front of the rebels and kill them already!).
      5) Absolutely no reason for Luke to be a hologram (or whatever you wanna call it) if he’s gonna die anyway.
      6) let’s have a better back story for Snoke, Luke, and Ben. We just cut out 40 minutes of Rose…let’s use that time onm something that is actually interesting!
      7) Cut out Princess Leia being blasted into space. She would have died, the end. Either have the balls to kill here there, or don’t do the scene at all (which would also save us from the Mary Poppins moment).
      8) Jedi Ghosts….can we please go back them not having the ability to hit people or call down lightning? Opens up too many “why didn’t they do these earlier” questions.
      9) Follow through on the mysteries JJ asked in the first one….such as why does Maz have Luke’s saber, and why did Rey have visions when she held it?
      10) Honestly, it would have been pretty darn surprising and interesting if Rey DID join Kylo when he offered. Instead they just hit the reset button and we are back to square one with the next movie.

    • Thulsadoom

      Ahh, the old ‘what would you have done’ type question. This _is_ a review site, which by definition means nit-picking movies. 😉 If we can’t ‘nitpick’ movies, then we’d all like every movie ever made, simply because it exists.

      Whether The Last Jedi turns out to be a good effort or not (Even though what they’ve done with the characters and story sounds awful), things were already ruined by The Force Awakens, which might be why so many people went in with poor expectations. These aren’t simply stand-alone movies. They’re part of an on-going story, which means previous chapters influence you going into the next.

      What would I have done differently? I would’ve written The Force Awakens completely differently, which would’ve then resulted in a very different sequel. I’ve had plenty of ideas of where Star Wars could have gone, that I believe would’ve been better, but as with anything, that’s only my personal opinion. 🙂

  14. Chapz Kilud

    Luke H, only 12 questions?

    Some of your questions could still be answered in the final episode. Some are trivial now considering there are bigger problems. But you’re right to point them out. There are plot holes everywhere in Last Jedi. Also there were some contradictions that shook the foundation of jedi-hood.

    I posted this already. They could have kept the options open. It only takes 30 seconds in the movie to have a Resistance member point out First Order Fleet was jamming their transmissions. Instead they had to confirm that transmission was sent and nobody answered Leia’s desperate call for help. Now the Resistance is down to few dozen people, one Millennium Falcon and one X-wing lying on the bottom of the ocean. I’m just afraid they’re going to have to pull something ridiculous to make the next episode work. From a military stand point, it’s OVER for the Resistance. They were lucky that the Star Destroyers above orbit didn’t cut Millennium Falcon’s escape route and blast it to smithereens and killing every single member of the Resistance.

    You’re absolutely right. Fans waited for decades to get the continuation of the ROTJ. For decades I can only read the novels, and many were quite good. And you know what? They stuck with the canon and treated the story with respect as to not ruining the movies. Personally I thought it would have been great if they make movies out of existing books. Fans deserve something better than to have their childhood love destroyed by one film.

    • Jiden

      You keep going back to how Disney would have been better sticking to the books. While I agree that it’s all we had for a long time, and there were some elements that were fine, there were some pretty awful choices made along the way and perhaps should not be so beholden as you make them out to be. Just a hunch, but I’m guessing the following plot lines / items would not be well received by a modern film audience:

      – a prototype Death Star
      – a Darksaber (Death Star laser sans actual Death Star)
      – a Suncrusher (ship capable of collapsing a star and is absolutely indestructible)
      – Ysalamiri (animal that creates a Force negated bubble)
      – a clone of the emperor
      – a clone of Luke Skywalker
      – Leia being wooed by a prince who lives on a planet of space witches and Han having to win back her heart
      – Luke falling in love with a lady trapped in a computer, whose spirit is transferred to another Jedi’s body but loses her Force powers, whose body is THEN taken over by a dark side spirit to lure Luke to the dark side.
      – Chewie getting crushed by a moon pulled out of orbit and Han falling into an alcoholic depression
      – Han and Leia’s kid being a pacifist (in a series called Star Wars) and focusing on talking to animals
      – 3 Skywalkers (with the powers of our rings combined!) curing a disease via the Force

      I could go on but my stance is there was a LOT of less than stellar arcs on the books and Disney hitting the reset button and going in their own direction was for the best. I’m not saying they couldn’t cherry pick things to incorporate, but to absolutely hold themselves to was what decisions were made over the last 25 years where Episodes VII – IX were in no way guaranteed would be a mistake.

      • Chapz Kilud

        I didn’t say all the book were stellar. I said “many” which means not all. If you want me to be more specific I think the earlier ones (not too long after ROTJ) were better than the rest. And I don’t know why cloning of the emperor was that bad of an idea. They’ve been cloning storm troopers. I didn’t like clone of Luke either. But if we substitute Snokes for Emperor clone, it wouldn’t change the dynamics much, and you’d won’t have any complaints about not giving a little backstory to Snokes. If you don’t read the book which provided a bit more info on Snokes, he’s a complete mystery in the movies. But one of Leia/Han’s son turned dark and had to be killed by his sister. That was essentially what we have here except for the last part. Also I liked the heroic sacrifice from Anakin Solo. Luke falling in love wasn’t going to be applicable with Mark Hamill being this old. I don’t know why you hate Suncrusher that got destroyed by Han Solo. The planet killer from Force Awakens was even more ridiculous, not to mention First Order failed to guard against X-Wing fighters that successfully destroyed Death Star twice. Again, there are some good ideas, and there are some bad ideas. One can pick out bits and pieces from the existing novels. I will tell you this much. It’s better than the stuff these %#%# came up with. One thing about these people is that they are arrogant and full of themselves. They think they can write the best story in the world, but they can’t.

        I do agree with you that the books kept coming and got a little bit out of hand as writers expand boundaries. I stopped following around 10 years ago. But at least the books didn’t try to destroy the Jedi universe. But this movie essentially did.

      • Thulsadoom

        The reason a lot of people would have preferred a continuation closer to the novels, is not because they were perfect, but because even with their imperfections, they were still far superior to The Force Awakens.

        If you had to travel 100 mils to get from A to B, and someone said you can use a functional but rusty and slightly battered old car, or a brand new, shiny kids tricycle, which would you pick? If they’d offered anything better than the rusty old car, most of us would’ve have taken it gladly. Instead they forced(ahem) the tricycle on us. As such, many yearn to have been given at least the rusty old car. 😉

        • Chapz Kilud

          I wouldn’t say “a lot of people” because my guess is that 99% of people who watched the Last Jedi never read a single Star Wars novel. My problem is so far the 2 movies are just cheap imitations of the previous movies, copying the ideas that we saw already. In the Last Jedi, they even doubled down and tried to mimic Empire Strikes Back. If you were in a creative writing and you tried this stunt, you’d receive a failing grade for it. The reason I loved Rogue One very much is because it was refreshingly new, at the same time it connects with the old seamlessly.

          The quality of the story is also another issue. It’s a long movie but I can tell you that if you cut out about an hour worth of stuff, the last half hour wouldn’t change at all. There were so much junk in there that served as a convoluted way of getting from point A to point B. There was also lots of plot hole created as the result, and those junk time didn’t even serve the purpose of character development much.

          But for someone who hasn’t seen a Star Wars, this may be a great movie. But if you’re a serious fan and you care a lot about what you treasured during your childhood, this was a major disappointment.

          • EM

            “Here’s some money. Go see a Star War.” — Lucille Bluth, Arrested Development episode “¡Amigos!”

  15. Valerie

    “We don’t need,” “We don’t need,” all of this “we don’t need…” Speak for yourself. I liked the movie, including a lot of the stuff you seem to think I don’t need.

  16. NJScorpio

    In thinking about Luke’s review…

    I loved the part where, after Rey misunderstands “reach out”, Luke tickles her hand with a blade of grass. It reminded me of something an old hermit of a teacher in an old martial arts movie (or even Yoda) might do, when their pupal made an error like that.

    But then I thought…when did Luke ever have a sense of humor? I may be wrong, but I don’t recall Luke Skywalker EVER having a sense of humor. I fully believe his story line about his conflict regarding the Jedi…it’s a natural progression after RotJ in a way. Yet would his hermit life, make him…funny? Obi-wan never wasn’t funny in his older age…and Luke wasn’t a hermit all THAT long, look at the flashbacks with Kylo!

    So it was funny, yes, and perhaps it was meant to be the one and only time Luke was funny…otherwise it was just jumping on the opportunity for a joke.

  17. Dan007

    This is not a perfect film. But man does it get a lot right for me. I enjoyed the continued characterization of all the new characters. Say what you want about the original films, but the new characters are written with 3 dimensional attributes unlike he originals. (With the exception of Han Solo).

    I’m addition I really enjoyed the deconstruction of what it means to be apart of the Jedi. There are some strong themes of corruption and redrawn lines of belief systems that I believe to have strong relevance in today’s culture. In this way, this is one of the first Star Wars films to swing for the fences in its attemp at weighty themes that go beyond black and white and good versus evil. I will say, in this way it seemed a little like Trek and not wars but I love the evolution.

    I will add that all the humor does
    Not work for me. Some of it was character driven like the opening scene with Poe “holding” for Hux. (This fits with his characterization in TFA.) Other times, it was forced. There were too many cuts to the porg for my taste. That being said the humor was not ruiness for me. All in all, I like the film a lot, and there are plenty of themes to chew on.

  18. Johnny Tellsya

    This movie, like The force awakens, is a horrible movie. But, the dumb masses still pay to see them! People are dumb.

  19. “in your mind did you hear Tommy Wiseau yell “It’s tearing you apart, Lisa!”?”

    Hey Luke! Correct quote is ‘You’re tearing ME apart, Lisa!’ 🙂

  20. Mandie

    I feel like if you’re going to critique something on technicalities like these you should use better editing

    I assume you mean Rose and FINN when you keep saying how to Rose and Poe know how to pilot various ships and know how technology works?

    “Will Luke, Anakin and Obi-Wan will return in ‘Episode IX’ to fight as Jedi Force ghosts?” Double verbs?

    There are more but you’re not worth it if you can’t even edit your own articles.

  21. Bobabannanafanna

    I totally LOVED the “Spaceballs” I’ll hold/can you hear me now scene at the beginning. I couldn’t stop laughing! Seriously, this is the BEST Star Wars movie EVER!!! Well, next to “Attack of the Clones” of course.

  22. TC

    I didn’t hate the movie, but it was disappointing. The more I think about any detail, the worse it comes off to me. Based on the interviews it’s pretty clear they have no direction on where the story is going or how it’s supposed to end. It’s just making stuff up as they go along.

    I had problems with TFA over recycling the original trilogy story line, but Han’s death did have some impact for me. Most of the new characters I don’t care about at all. When this version of Luke died, I was glad to not have to listen to him whine any more. The guy who redeemed Vader was broken to the point of considering killing his nephew in his bed for having darkness in him… I needed a lot more character development to go into the fall of Skywalker for his character to change as much as it did.

    Snoke was a potentially interesting character, but they killed him off as if he was a random lackey. I kept waiting to see that this was his clone or something because surely the guy who can mentally link two people across the galaxy, turned Ben Solo while he was being trained by Luke, and over threw the Republic doesn’t just get offed by an apprentice who is so underwhelming. Kylo killing Snoke came across more as Snoke being much weaker than expected, rather than Kylo being much stronger. Rey already defeated Kylo with no training, so making Kylo the ultimate villain is underwhelming.

    The Rebellion was outnumbered in the original Trilogy, but you still got the impression it was thousands of rebels vs millions of Empire. The new trilogy has millions of New Order vs a few hundred resistance. Despite the extended effort with Finn and Rose’s story to show that sometimes plans by the good guys fail, the New Order hasn’t won any decisive victories considering their massive advantages though. As much trouble as they are having with the ~400 or so rebels left, I can’t understand how these losers over threw the Republic in the first place.

    The new trilogy basically makes the defeat of the empire meaningless with minimal explanation of how we got to a place worse off than they were at the start of A New Hope, and The Last Jedi over writes many of the potential questions posed in The Force Awakens as meaningless in the same fashion. It’s hard to care where the story is going next because whatever development they tried to set up to this point is just as likely to not matter at all in the next movie.

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