I have been a long time Star Wars fan, my father introduced me to the series when I was around 5 or 6 years old. I grew up on the original trilogy and I watched and have enjoyed the prequal trilogy. But the sequel trilogy so far has been a major disappointment. The Force Awakens set up the potential for a fantastic story, I forgave some writing flaws as all movies with Star Wars have writing flaws, Luke kissing Leia anyone? I was as excited as anyone for The Last Jedi, I watched videos on the canon comics being released, the speculations on character and enjoyed doing some of my own with my wife. But when I finally saw The Last Jedi, I was disappointed at the first viewing, and angry at the second viewing. I will not be going into the political controversies revolving around the Star Wars franchise today but into the characters and what they did with the established rules of the Star Wars universe.
First let’s look at Luke Skywalker, Luke at the end of Return of the Jedi, Luke is going to attempt to rebuild the Jedi order. He refused to kill his father, removing any chance of Luke going to the dark side. The first time we see Luke in 30 years, he has given up on the force and when confronted by Rey, throws the lightsaber of his father over the cliff. He refuses to train Rey, all because of the incident that lead Kylo Ren into joining the dark side. Luke sensed that Kylo had been influenced by Snoke and decided to kill Kylo Ren or at the time, Ben Solo. This is a complete fall from character established in Return of the Jedi. The Luke we’ve come to love has become an emotionless shell of the character. He refused to train Rey and at one point was beaten in one on one combat by Rey. This is disappointing because Luke next to Anakin is the most gifted force user and Jedi to ever be seen. They then kill Luke, and from what I understand he is dead, not a force ghost. This is a complete destruction of the character we’ve loved for three generations now.
Next, we’ll look at Rey, Rey is the Mary Sue of Mary Sue’s. She is strong in the force, can fly the millennium falcon, and beat both Kylo Ren and Luke in one on one combat with no training in any of the 7 lightsaber forms. She is an equal in the force when compared to Kylo Ren who is formally trained, and 3rd generation Skywalker. This is represented at the end of The Last Jedi when they come to a stalemate over Anakin’s lightsaber causing it to explode. There isn’t much more to talk about Rey as she is the least interesting protagonist in all of Star Wars. Over-powered and with no major explanation as to why.
Next, we’ll talk about Finn and Rose. Finn and Rose are being combined because they are two very disappointing characters. Finn the Storm Trooper turned rebel had some of the most potential in any character introduced in the whole franchise. Adding a humane face to the first order, showing that not all of the first order is murderous and faceless. But in The Last Jedi, Finn was out shown (I say that loosely) by Rose Tico, Rose came in just after Finn woke up and eventually traveled with him to a gambling planet to find a hacker. In this time frame all they did together was argue and eventually end up on the Star Destroyer and get caught because the hacker was untrustworthy. They escape the destroyer and eventually they end up fighting on the ground together against the first order, Finn was granted with an opportunity to gain some serious growth and amend for his sins as a first order storm trooper by sacrificing himself to stop the giant laser beam. At the last second Rose stops Finn from sacrificing himself and nullifying any growth Finn could have achieved. Also, Rose is another boring character who is easily forgettable and was shoe horned into the story through the most improbable bombing attempt in the franchise’s history. She is easily forgotten and could have been replaced with anyone and the story would have progressed the exact same.
The final character I will talk about is Kylo Ren. Kylo Ren or Ben Solo could have been the best character in the new story. He is the most developed, full conflict between the dark and light are very obvious and make him the most enjoyable character on screen. He might seem like a toddler with his tantrums, but they remind me of Attack of the clones where Anakin slaughtered the sand people. Uncontrollable rage with conflicting emotions, the fact he killed his father and thought he killed his mother. So far Kylo is the best character, but they also ruined any potential for the character to grow because he killed his potential master Snoke. We could have seen Kylo become the most powerful dark side user since Darth Sideous, but now we have two force users who now have to find their way and one has to die and since Kylo Ren is the dark side user, we know it will be him.
Now onto the story, the story is just abysmal. From the beginning the pacing is slow, the action is mediocre at best except the scene where Rey and Kylo fight the Imperial guard. But outside that one scene the story is bad, the characters are boring and the forty-five minutes we spend on the casino planet, is an absolute waste of time for everyone involved and the Audience.
In conclusion, I hate The Last Jedi, it is a bad movie and that is without all the controversy involving the production team and directors. I can honestly say I will not support another Star Wars movie from this point on unless they get better writers, stop insulting the fans, and provide characters that are strong but capable. In the end I would rather watch the prequels over the new series of movies and I will not be introducing my children to Episode 7, 8 or 9 unless they really go about fixing the flaws in episode 8 with episode 9 but I doubt they will. The reason why this took so long is because I truly had to come to terms with my feelings on the movie before I made a final decision on it.
