James Crawford

SPOLIERS: This movie convinced me that Rian Johnson has no idea what star wars is. Probably the most divisive aspect of the movie was the complete destruction of Luke's character. In the original trilogy, he refuses to give up on his father, despite Vader being arguably the most evil person in the entire galaxy. He is even willing to give up his own life instead of killing Vader. Yet, in this movie, he has a bad dream about Kylo and decides to instantly lose faith and try to kill him. This isn't subverting expectations, it's terrible writing and shows complete disregard to the Star Wars that we love. Unfortunately, this is a common theme throughout the movie. The most eye catching scene is when Holdo uses lightspeed to kamikaze into the First Order flagship. While a cool looking scene, it makes any viewer that saw the original trilogy wonder why the rebels didn't just send some suicide ships into the Death Star at lightspeed? This scene utterly devalues both Death Star battles, and makes hyperspace rather ambiguous, as by the logic established in this movie people in hyperspace should be slamming into planets and asteroids all the time. The entire casino scene is pointless, as is Rose's whole character, and only serves to bolster the run time of a movie that really doesn't need to be any longer. Another thing this trilogy seriously lacks is a compelling villain. Vader was intimidating, and Sidious even more so. Not only that, but they were developed characters, twisted and hollowed by a lust for power, with Vader being almost sympathetic. Meanwhile, Kylo's motivation is to be a fanboy Vader who throws fits after he inevitable loses every battle, Hux is comic relief, and Snoke is killed off when we still have no idea who he is, why he was in charge, or what his motivations were. Furthermore, Rey has received no character development since the beginning of The Force Awakens, and as such is neither compelling nor relatable as a protagonist. It would be more of a surprise to see Kylo actually win a fight than Rey, which contributes to an overall lack of tension or engagement. It really seems as if nothing is on the line because Rey easily overcomes all conflict with no training, and the First Order is incompetent. Still, the saddest part of the movie remains Luke's character. His needless death at the end after underwhelming contributions throughout just tops off what has claimed the crown of worst Star Wars movie.