There are many ways you can read into a movie. A person's view is subjective and interpretation widely varies from person to person... All and all The Last Jedi was a great movie... it has many flaws.. and many other great movies do as well. But unfortunately, being a Star Wars Movie, to me, despite it being a great movie.. all its flaws made it a horrible Star Wars Movie...
Now, a lot of fans had a problem with TLJ. In general i had no problem with the DIRECTION of the story.. The General Plots and Story were great. But a Star Wars Movie running 2.5 hours long shouldn't have this many plot gaps / issues.
Luke..
There was nothing wrong with Luke through out the movie as far as i was concerned except for the final act. As a long time star wars fan, i loved how Luke turned out. the first 2 acts in its own way sort of gave the impression that Luke himself was no longer a Jedi but a Grey Jedi. Its not the most accurate way to describe him, but as far as on screen Star Wars movies are concerned, i do believe to date this is the closest we will get to a Grey Jedi. For those who do not know what a Grey Jedi is, its basically a Jedi who has abandoned the ways of the Jedi council and walk the thin line between the Dark & Light side drawing from both. This was confirmed by Luke him self when he said between the dark and light is the Force. The Force as "Old" Luke portrays it resides in balance and not skewed to a particular side.Many had a problem with Luke's transformation.. but i was not one of them. What ever happened with him and Ren made him reevaluate his views and realign himself.
What i did have a problem was his new found powers Specifically those of astral projection. Non of the movies ever mentioned this before and it was never shown. If this was a significant Force sensitive power, Palpatine, Snoke, Vader, Ben and Yoda and anyone on the jedi counsel never used it. And as far as i know.. this was not used in the old republic either.. (i could be wrong). This was one of the plot gaps. If this was an ancient technique.. it should have at least been referenced -> by opening one of the old jedi manuscripts for example. And he even projected SOLID items - remember the dice keychain he GAVE it to Leia?.. and Ren picked it up.. only then did it disappear. Luke WAS the last jedi (grey or not), with both his teachers dying before he completed his training. So where/how did he learn to do all this? There's nothing wrong with introducing new powers.. BUT you need to remember this is a verse that has 10 movies, and has spanned over 40 years. If you want to introduce a new piece, you need to justify why it was not there before.
Rey
Its absolutely needless to say that the question of her lineage has been the main question for the past 2 years and we were promised it would be addressed in The Last Jedi. But not only was the explanation (done in a about 2-3 lines) utterly disappointing... it created more questions then it answered. So ok.. Rey's parents were drunks that sold off their only child. But lets remember that when we first saw Rey, she was no slave. Going from slave to not a slave is unconventional even in Star Wars verse and normally requires a huge payout... The huge anticipation of Rey's parents was teased for 2 years to just say "yeah .. your parents were nobodies.. they're probably in a ditch somewhere drunk" What the hell???? It was done crudely to say the very least.. I have no problem of rey's parents being nobodies. But after 2 years of people waiting, at least reveal it in a way that warrants the 2 year wait. At the very least Ren prompting a force triggered memory flashback.
Snoke
Snoke was an equally interesting character that was built up to be the supreme leader.. Snoke wasn't part of the Empire (at least not apparently) in the original trilogy. So where did he come from? How did he take over? Why was no one aware of another powerful force user - apparently even more powerful then Sidious and Vader How did he find Ren (which apparently he did while Ren was still training with Luke). He's incredibly powerful in the force to the extent he connected both Rey and Ren's minds at multiple points without dying.. (unlike someone else who was using "new" force powers) . What was the point of his presence ? to piss ren off into killing rey? Well.. we'll probably never know considering he's just been sent to the after life. The story is a progression from the previous 8 films. 10 if you count the other 2 movies that were not related to the empire. While it was fine not to have Palpatine's identity addressed during 4,5& 6 the situation here is not quite the same. We aren't "vaguely informed of how it was before" like we were when 4, 5 & 6 came out. We know the Emperor was Killed and so was his Apprentice. So it warrants an explanation of out of which hell hole this guy came from. His back story will hopefully be address somewhere .. somehow.. Possibly in one of their comics.. but for those only watching the movies thats all folks.
Porgs?
What was the purpose of these guys? Seriously... why don't you just add Mogwai's in while ur at it. It seems like their intention was to be comical relief. but this is Star Wars. the closest thing we need to get to comical relieve is C3PO being worried about something. And while we're at it about C3PO.. we don't need him to rehash ODDS remarks either.
And still talking about humor.. The film is plagued with humor that are just NOT STAR WARS. as entertaining as Poes " Hugs" joke was.. it's unconventional in Star Wars movies.. but Chewy eating a Porg was even more so. And so were all the comical adventures BB8 was having
R2D2 & Chewy
While i understand the intention is to give room for the new characters.. R2 WAS Luke's astromech. He was with Rey and Chewy on the quest to find luke.. But it seems like he was only around for 2 minutes in the entire movie. R2 is just as much a Star Wars hero as Luke, Han or the others... But it seems like he was just dismissed into spiritual guide that triggered Luke to finally "help" rey and left soon after as quickly as he came.
Finn and Rose (and Poe)
Was there even a purpose for this whole plot point ? It seems like the whole thing was made up just to support Poe's Rebellion and nothing else. which ultimately failed miserably both from a Poe's Rebellion standpoint AND from a Mission Stand point. If this whole plot was removed entirely.... they would have still ended up in a cave! it served no purpose at all - Except to barbecue Phasma. They could have used this additional 45 minutes to address a ton of different things.
Phasma
Gwen should kill the guys in Disney.. seriously.. just kill them...She was supposed to be a bad ass in TFA.. but was sent into a garbage dump.. Then she comes on in TLJ for 5 minutes and gets thrown into a fire hole? This, Snoke's identity and Reys parentage ... all valid reasons for Gwen to go Trial by Combat on the disney execs.. PLEASEEEEEE!!!!!
Holdo
And on the other side of Poe's Rebellion, of course we have Holdo. Even though Poe WAS demoted. He still was Leia's most trusted pilot and she knew it! To what purpose was she holding out the info on the plan from Poe ? Its almost insulting as itfeels like she was USING Poe to withhold the plan from the AUDIENCE more then the crew! Talk about breaking the forth wall! And for those who are gonna go logical on me and talk about suspecting a mole based on how the empire tracked the -> Yeah.. she could have just told Poe.. i have a plan.. but the empire might have a mole and that's why they are tracking us.
Then she goes all self sacrifice and stay back to "Steer the ship" ... A ship that can use hyperdrive and travel at lightspeed needs someone to stay behind to go in a straight line at 10 miles per hour? Well.. when you convert car speed to star cruiser speeds.. arghh you know what i'm talking about. Granted she wouldn't have been able to go lightspeed and rip the empire apart if she didn't .. But she didn't know she would have to. Not at the time.
Rey (AGAIN)
How many times did she sleep? I mean Seriously. The plot on the Island felt/seemed to take at least a week if not more based on how many night scenes we saw. and the Rebellion fleet was low on fuel and could only last a limited time. There was no real "resting" time for the rebellion on the run. It seems like the time lines were hugely disconnected.. but then you have Ren coming in and checking up on Rey and you realize its all happening parallel. Yeah.. you can explain things by saying the worlds day/night cycles could be different or whatever.. but i'm not really buying that one. The whole impression was the whole chase seemed to be over the course of 2-3 days.. but Rey was on the island for much longer. At least it felt so
The Pursuit
And while we are on the "pursuit" episode.. WHAT THE F MAN??? the ships were at a distance because they were faster then Empire's ships. Given the scientific fact about speed itself.. if you are faster.. over time you will naturally INCREASE distance. but the distance was the same pretty much throughout the 3 arcs of the movie. What was the order? GET OUT OF RANGE, THEN MATCH THE EMPIRE'S SPEED SO THEY CAN CONTINUE TO PURSUE US" ? I'm not saying they should have punched it due to limited fuel reserves.. but come on man... You could have at least SHOWED a growing distance between the two.
Leia - Before getting on the Falcon
We all know that something needs to happen to her. Carrie is no longer around to take up the role. And the scene of her looking at Rey while everyone was getting onto the falcon gave the feeling that she was about to confront her son on her own.... after Luke and Han before her... So imagine my surprise when she gets on the ship!! and its not a good surprise.. it totally anti climatic... Think of it as you considering doing a huge heroic gesture.. then turning around and saying.. Nahh.. fuck it..
Yoda,
As much as him returning as a force spirit is always welcome... Force spirits should no longer physically effect the environment. And using Force Lightning no less.. thats Sith shit right there!
Coma
Is it just me or do we keep on ending the new trilogy's with people going into comas?
The Last Jedi was a great movie on its own. But its not on its own.. and thats what amplified the flaws. The prequels were a fiasco.. but they had strong (in their own way) story lines with non apparent plot gaps. the same can't be said of this one. Its not like i have a problem of how it was made, what the story was or how it was ended.. It was the execution & the purpose... How it contributes to the verse it self, and the quality it should carry while doing so was just not up to par.
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