List of Reasons The Last Jedi the Worst of the Sequel Trilogy

On the argument of The Last Jedi being the least weak of the sequel trilogy, here are some things to consider, even though the argument may be wearing us all out. The trouble with The Force Awakens was a) sidelining Luke so he won't distract, although his absence ended up being a distraction itself and b) mystery box format which itself is not Star Wars and rarely pays off c) too much like the original Star Wars even to the point of Starkiller Base exploding which seems rote and d) The concept of Starkiller Base is built-in self destruction since it is fixed to the planet and will doom itself by draining its only sun, as opposed to the Sun Crusher which was mobile in the EU books. e) Entering the atmosphere at light speed is dumb but some edge is taken off of it by the comical slide to the edge of a cliff. f) failing to devote the first film to the issue of Ben Solo and his training, culminating in his massacre and escape instead of having that be backstory. Too much concern about introducing Rey right away. On the plus side, until Han's fate he is a welcome and entertaining presence. The case against The Last Jedi both as Star Wars and as a movie on its own goes something like this: A) Leaving no time lapse between episode VII and VIII serves no purpose except to show how Rey and Luke's first conversation would go (and that could have been skipped unless the lightsaber toss was hilarious). B) General Hux (Hugs) is minimized as a threat by being treated as a joke right away. His only solid laugh about repeating commands was funnier the first time when Sigourney Weaver did it in Galaxy Quest. His one moment of balls where he reaches for his gun when Kylo is unconscious comes from the actor Domhnall Gleeson, according to Rian Johnson's commentary track. C) Rey and Luke, Holdo and Poe, as well as Rose and Finn have the same condescending dynamic in their scenes, even to the extent of girlsplaining the econimics of The First Order to a storm trooper. D) The Holdo maneuver could have been performed by a sacrificial droid. E) While this isn't clear in the movie, the novelization says that Leia sees a light go out indicating that Poe has switched off his radio when she objects to the bombing run. She could have called it off - as General - on the open channel and still had a case for his demotion. F) Unconscious in space, Leia could not breathe. While she can wake and will herself back to the ship she does not have the power to come out of a coma except via help from a male, her brother, through long distance force healing. G) Despite the ostensibly feminist construct of the characters, Holdo misjudges Poe and ensures there will be mutiny, Rose for all her knowledge of Canto Bight does not know to ask permission to land, and Rey is wrong to fall for Kylo's lure and for ignoring Luke's advice. H) Flashbacks at all in Star Wars don't fit. This is inherited from JJ's mystery box having abandoned the more linear narrative of the other films. But worst of all Luke would have had a parent-teacher interview with Han and Leia if he was worried about Ben (should have been first scene of The Force Awakens to get those three together right away). Luke would not have crept to his sleeping nephew in the night, let alone with murder at all a consideration. Even a protagonist in a non Star Wars movie would make no sense doing that. I) Luke restores his connection to the force and demonstrates force push ability on Rey's hut, but then doesn't bother using it when Rey gets him on his back and pins him with his own family saber. He should have sent it flying one way and Rey another. This moment you can really imagine Rian typing away and Kennedy's "story group" having no problem with it. J) Luke may have a reason to deceive the First Order outside the old Crait rebel base, but he has no reason to deceive Leia and the resistance team, especially not to give Leia the magic disappearing dice which apparently she dropped on the floor at some point. Apart from Luke winking at Threepio (Mark Hamill's decision because Rian didn't want him to acknowledge his old droid) there is no clue that things are not as they appear. Rian put his own arrangement of reveals ahead of what would have been practical. Luke could have said to Leia, "The rear exit is blocked by rocks. You better get levitating those and get people out. I'll distract your guests outside." Poe really didn't have to be left to connect those dots, except that it contrives something for him to contribute. Although, if Luke wants them to escape, he could have cleared the rocks himself. K) The Escape from L.A. twist with Luke works fine, but might he have been able to use the force to also crush the canons or kneecap the walkers, or could he have arrived earlier and prevented the "death star tech" from cooking Finn's kamikaze run (and save us from the cringe moment with Rose) ? L) After being told by Leia that Poe is not ready, she decides, "Why are you looking at me? Follow HIM." Which somewhat again flips the ham-fisted messaging that came before. M) It is not clear how Rey in an off screen stolen Imperial ship reunited with Chewie and the Falcon so they could arrive at Crait. N) Luke's death is arbitrary. O) The broom boy playing with home made Star Wars figures might have been stronger if we had not been bombarded with commercials featuring kids playing pretend interacting with representations of the real thing. P) The point is often made that the Fathiers freed by Rose and Finn would be easily gathered up later, while had they freed the kids they might have hidden and evaded capture. Q) DJ describing the black market of ships to both the bad guys and the good bothers some people, although the military-industrial complex is a fair topic to give a nod. But had they met DJ in the rebel brig Rose was dragging Finn to, there would be no need for the mis-direct about the code breaker we kind of hoped would be Lando. DJ could have been discretely released from the brig and began the mission, maybe even after perhaps the hologram of Maz Kanata might not be able to give him a reference. (It looked like she was busy in a better movie.) R) The Captain Phasma character was given an anticlimactic and premature death falling into fire, but in fairness we can put an asterisk on this point because the next writer or director or the ever vigilant story group could have just had Gwendolin Christie infiltrate the Resistance with a burn scar on her eye and maybe a patch which might have explained it. Her armor might have protected her beyond the helmet crack. S) It was not quite clear when the lightsaber crystal exploded and the Holdo explosion happened who was on what ship. T) Deleted scenes like Luke's third lesson and a trooper (Tom Hardy) recognizing Finn in the elevator, should have stayed in and Canto Bight just eliminated. U) When page drops the bomber payload, maybe it should have been as explicit as the novelization in stating that they are magnetic so some viewers couldn't take it as ignoring the lack of gravity. V) BB-8 coming to the rescue riding a chicken walker was very ewok-esque. W) Could Luke have simply resisted the call to adventure politely and offered Rey tea instead of being rude to the one other human on the planet ? X) Chewie is guilted out of actually eating the porg even after he killed it, plucked its feathers, and put barbecue sauce on it and cooked it. After the other porgs batted their eyes and caused him to hesitate, the button on that scene should have been Chewie taking a defiant bite. Instead it gets an eye roll over imposed vegan-ization of a wookie. Even in the new Holiday Special, he stops his wookie family from eating porgs. Y) Why did Holdo's plan of refueling smaller ships and then distracting the First Order have to be a secret when there was no way Hux and his team would not detect a wagon train of small ships leaving the area? Z) Rose posts herself at the escape pods and feels entitled to zap and arrest people who try to leave a VOLUNTARY resistance. How is that any different from fueling the smaller ships to escape? People like Han can come and go without being branded disloyal. And knowing Finn's status (which must have been really talked up far and wide in the ZERO time between the last film and this) she still assaults him and assumes at every turn that his nature is to bail. Had he been allowed to leave, he might have reached Ach-to and had a Meet the Parents dynamic with Luke. I realize these points have been bandied about for three years. You might be sick of them. But The Last Jedi is such a case study in ideology causing blind spots in storytelling that I feel compelled to call the movie on some of its shit. Luckily I have run out of alphabet so I can leave it at that. Based on the above points, The Last Jedi is the worst of a very flawed trilogy. The Revise of Skywalker inherits most of its deficits from The Last Jedi. I can't get past the idea that any part of the Endor Death Star survived the explosion, let alone an almost intact Emperor's throne room. Pure stupidity the "Lucasfilm Story Group" would not care to challenge because it has nothing to do with identity politics.