Star Wars: The Last Straw (SPOILERS)

For this long term Star Wars fan, the most recent movie was disappointing to say the least. The expectations where at an all time high after the release of “The Force Awakens.” Star Wars fans, myself included, waited an entire year for our beloved franchise to release the newest chapter in a classic story.

For those that don’t know, the last episode in the saga left us with a cliffhanger between new rivals Kylo Ren and Rey. With a hopeful future ahead, it seemed like the new trilogy could only go up. To the dismay of the fans, J.J. Abrams was cut from the position of director and replaced by Rian Johnson, cutting Abrams ideas short and switching the main focus in the plot.

The build up in the previous movie over supreme leader Snoke was great, but that momentum was quite literally killed off. At the peak of the movie’s suspense, the leader of the first order was killed by Kylo Ren in a twist of fate.

The twists felt uncoordinated and strange considering how the previous movie had unfolded. Johnson made his own decisions about the franchise and it didn’t feel like it really panned out. For the fans of the original trilogy it seemed out of place and unrelated.

Old characters making a return, Luke and Leia Skywalker, didn’t even feel like the same people. Luke went from a serious character in the sixth movie to a one-line machine abused by Disney to “release” tension in moments built with incredible care over the last several decades. It immediately smacked the viewer in the face with a crappy slapstick joke. It was offensive and belittling as a long-time fan.

Aside from the childish comedy thrown in to unbalance the mood, the original trilogy characters’ fates felt like they were up to the roll of a die.

From killing off a beloved character without the blink of an eye to having a convoluted and annoying exit for Luke Skywalker or even fake the death of Leia.

Taking away my personal grievances, the results are still sub-par. The plot was completely ridiculous when it is revealed two thirds of the way through the movie. The vibe was supposed to be related to the original cantina scene, sadly it was executed poorly and was incredibly boring.

In terms of character development and total character performance, I think this movie excelled. Rey and Kylo were amazingly performed and the connection was compelling and interesting. Mark Hamill was amazing with the script given for Luke Skywalker, even if it’s not what the character would do he still gave great effort and tried to make it convincing.

On the negative side, there is Rose. She is the embodiment of an annoying and poorly designed character. Sitting beside Jar Jar Binks in terms of Star Wars characters, Rose is the most obnoxious counterproductive character in the movie. Without he, the all star cast could’ve accomplished so much more and been better off in the end.

Another character that seemed very out of place was Yoda. Why on Earth was he in this movie? There was no reason to involve him besides a money grab and a shock factor for fans. It felt out of place and stupid when it happened on screen.

I know it sounds like I’m berating the movie, but it wasn’t completely terrible. The visuals, as always, were absolutely stunning. The music was great and compelling and the work by John Williams was top of the line.

In terms of the new character story lines, I enjoyed the movie, but on the other side the old characters’ story line was just simply bad. As a whole, the movie was positive, but not by much.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi scores 5.5 stars out of 10.