I watched The Last Jedi yesterday, and would like to share my thoughts here.
As a preface, I would like to add that I had mixed feelings when I saw The Force Awakens, but hoped that it could lead to better things. Additionally, I had mixed feelings about Rogue One. Leading up to TLJ, I did not follow social media and carefully guarded myself against spoilers. I was quite excited for this installment. I was really hoping they wouldn't try to ride too much nostalgia trip from ESB.
Opening crawl immediately pointed to an ESB type story initially, and then there was the evacuation and everything. Pretty standard ESB copy. So then we get up into space and have Poe trying to hail the Imperial ship. The connection joke fell absolutely flat. Tried to set up a light tone at a time that should have been tense and grim, felt very forced. So then Poe activates his super-engine or whatever and destroys all the anti-aircraft guns. THEN the Imperials decide to scramble fighters. Seemed like a stupid move, I would expect they should already have fighters providing top-cover for the entire operation.
Next, we cue the bomber attack. I liked the ship design of the bombers, seemed like a beefier B-Wing. I did not like the melodramatic sequence where the pilot is trying to release the bombs with the absolutely ludicrous bomb-release-remote. Spent way too long on that sequence. Bombardier is dead, just crash the ship into the dreadnought. Same emotional impact (or lack thereof), same sacrifice. Spare the drama please. Also it was stupid that the bombs are apparently still under gravity's pull. Stick with the physics, thank you.
Then, the expected hyperspace jump. Slightly unexpected was that the Imperials are able to follow. The next sequence of events is a mess of plot holes that is to stagger the imagination. The Resistance ships are apparently able to "outrun" the Imperial ones with their sublight engines. Well, what's to stop the Star Destroyers and Dreadnoughts from doing a micro hyperspace jump to just in front of the Resistance ships and subsequently blow them out of the sky? Additionally, with the bridge (or one of the bridges), and the cruiser's fighters destroyed, what's keeping the Imperial fighters from attacking the Rebel ships at will? The Imperials show many other places in the movie that they are not afraid to use excessive force to wipe out the Resistance. It seems to me they had several options to destroy what remained of the Resistance well before waiting for them to run out of fuel. I found myself disappointed at the complete idiocy of what was going on.
Then, Kylo's TiE buddies take out the bridge (or one of the bridges, apparently there is another). At that moment, I'm thinking, "Leia is gone. I've made my peace with it, that's how she would want to go." But no! Instead we get to go Guardians of the Galaxy and Leia brings up this previously unknown Force skill and is able to bring herself back to the ship. I can't take this movie seriously at this point. They should have let her die at this point in the movie. She added next to nothing to the remainder of the film.
Cue Vice-Admiral Holdo, who apparently just stumbled on set from the Hunger Games. As pointed out above, one would hope she could conjure up a uniform or something. But no, instead we have elegant dresses and pink tresses. Her dismissal of Poe is stupid at best, and borderline criminal negligence at worst. Instead of briefing the crew on the plan and preparing to execute it, the command leaves the entire crew in the dark with nothing to go on. This is without a doubt the biggest plot hole in the entire Star Wars saga. As a viewer, it seemed to me (without knowing at the time that there was in fact a plan), that she was going to blindly burn the rest of their fuel in a vain hope that an option would turn up in the next 6 hours.
So naturally the events that follow Rose (C'mon, let's think of some original names please?) and Finn are completely unnecessary, and add little to the film. Their entire excision to Canto Bright seemed little more than a PETA commercial. I will have to admit that I did not have as much an issue with the Canto Bright casino as most did. In fact, outside of the unoriginal attire, my initial thought was that it was the most Star Wars-y thing I had seen in the movie so far. Which is to say how little the movie felt like Star Wars. The most ludicrous thing that happened during that whole arc was Rose's, "Now it's worth it!" after setting the animals free. As if their failure to aid the Rebellion and avenge her sister's death was now fine and dandy that a few animals got released back into the wild. The whole time I'm also thinking, Benecio del Toro was cast as a villain, right? I'm hoping this movie can conjure up some really amazing stuff to make it worth it, because right now I'm 80% sure it's the stupidest movie I have ever seen, and I watched Iron Sky.
Back on Ach-To, Luke tosses his Father's lightsaber over his shoulder in a flat attempt at humor. So much for, "This weapon is your life". Unfortunately, after that little gesture, I knew I was going to be disappointed with whatever happened with Luke. Then we have Luke the milkman and Luke the fisherman, in an apparent gambit to explain how Luke survives on this island. And there are maids that take care of everything? What? Also Luke has turned into a whiny, pathetic loser. The Luke we see is nowhere close to the character of the Original Trilogy. Mark Hamill was right to object about what his character is doing. Luke doesn't run away and hide. Luke comes to the aid of his friends, no matter what.
That's all I have the energy for right now. I will continue my review of the movie later.