Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a space opera film written and directed by Rian Johnson. It is the second film in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, following Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and eighth in the overall franchise. The film stars Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, and Gwendoline Christie in returning roles, with Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern, and Benicio del Toro joining the cast. It marks the final performance of Fisher, who died in December 2016. The film picks up right after the events of Star Wars: The Force Awakens with the Resistance fighters, led by General Leia Organa, trying to evade the clutches of the ruthless First Order while Rey is on a mission to find Luke Skywalker and ask him for help. Starting with the positives, Rian Johnson does a fine job directing the film and takes some pretty creative liberties with the source material. The acting is fine with Kylo Ren/Ben Solo and Rey having decent chemistry as their connection is explored in an interesting and exciting way. The film looks beautiful, with most of the visual and practical effects being well done. The overall cinematography is praiseworthy and blends environments so seamlessly that at times you can’t tell what is real and what is digital. John Williams, once again, delivers a great score with themes harkening back to the original trilogy. The film as a whole has a few interesting callbacks to the original trilogy, as well. Now to the negatives aspects of the film, of which there are many. The story is quite bland and feels bloated as well as overly long. There is a whole section of the film that is clunky and doesn’t fit in with the main narrative which throws off the pacing and causes the film to lag and become boring for a good bit. That time would have been better suited exploring more with Luke and Rey. A few of the characters have no chemistry with even a love story developing between a couple that feels both forced and out of place. Said love story even ruins what could have been an amazing and emotionally captivating scene. Characters such as Supreme Leader Snoke and Captain Phasma are wasted and pretty much pointless after being built up in the previous film. While some of the film’s callbacks work, others do not. Major events happen to characters that the viewer is not invested in, leading to an ending that we don’t care about. The fight choreography is abysmal with the actors looking as if they are doing their own thing rather than like trained fighters. Also, there is a specific practical effect that that looks awful, and while it’s understood why it was done that way, it was unnecessary fan service that doesn’t fit the style of the film. I give Star Wars: The Last Jedi a Normal 6/10. Disney is clearly treating Star Wars like the cash cow it is and not pushing the boundaries like George Lucas did. Essentially creating possibly the dullest film in the franchise. Hopefully, Episode IX redeems the trilogy, but at this point it’s doubtful.