Robert’s review published on Letterboxd:
Rian Johnson for sure crafts a fun yarn in The Last Jedi, but that isn't the whole story. I haven't once felt tired during my watching of his last effort, so rest assured I did have a good time. The issue that creeps beneath the surface of the last entry into the Star Wars franchise doesn't nearly concern its stupid length, the blundered attempts at quipping about or even the blasphemous arcs it entails. No, it's how utterly callous Rian Johnson is in giving the fanatics what they've been clamouring for in the past instalments but ultimately didn't get. Seriously, how is this utterly rash, reckless film-making vaunted as a literal subversion to the norm? The plot this film props up isn't even one with an actual narrative, just some particular scenes Johnson thought were cool enough to be embedded into the final product. Action packed it is, but one thing is meaningful action that propels the plot forward, and wholly another affair are mere set-pieces that make the cut just because. I don't (and won't ever) care for Star Wars, its legacy or whatever it was meant to stand for, but I can at least sympathize with what gripes reverberated in the fans' heads when after seeing these garbled ideas put together in this amateurish effort that's branded as a film. I fully embraced the fact that its structure is à la Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk -- a film that made me re-think of how hit-and-miss Nolan can be -- but at least the war drama actually served its purpose. And it did that faithfully, or nearly so. The Last Jedi simply doesn't care for what the franchise painstakingly wanted to achieve over all these years. There are plenty of questions to be asked of what this film wants. Why is Luke Skywalker, arguably one of the paragons of this fictional universe, seen milking a creature and then drinking its substance? That whole scene screams a big "fuck you" to whomever emphatized with and idolized that man. Let's not talk about how steep a departure his death is from the whole notion that he's someone with a lofty name to him. He dies from too much thinking. Was that seriously the utmost they could do? Rian Johnson should have been told beforehand that, when working within a franchise of this size, respect to the source material should have been of paramount importance. Withal, Rey's character and the whole message her persona is meant to convey falls flat. I haven't in my life seen such a low-brow route taken to advance a character's arc. She's the most pristine, most innocent being ever; and of course, they forgo the once-gruelling training Skywalker underwent. They don't make them like this anymore. Of course, they had to get political. Making Rey even in the faintest sliver of the subconscious a malcontent would do no good in selling merchandise. It's also cloyingly pathetic how that Holdo woman played by Laura Dern is a literal plot device that circumvents Poe showing his fiery side. Of course, that would be detrimental to the sales! Please. This is a failure, but a fun one; dilettantism at its sparkling best.