u/T-LJ2

First entertainment value/fanboy Ratings:

I - 8/10

II - 7/10

III - 9/10

IV - 10/10

V - 9/10

VI - 9/10

VII - 10/10

VIII - 9/10

IX - 9/10

Now for the more critical ones.

I - 7/10

II - 4/10

III - 7/10

IV - 10/10 (this one remains the same, it's literally perfect)

V - 8/10

VI - 7/10

VII - 9/10

VIII - 8.5/10

IX - 7/10

Finalised ratings:

I - 7.5/10

II - 5.5/10

III - 7.5/10

IV - 10/10

V - 8.5/10

VI - 8/10

VII - 9.5/10

VIII - 8.5/10

IX - 8/10

The finalised scores reveal that I still like Star Wars lmao

I like TLJ it's a very good movie and has most of it's elements done brilliantly. It's a 9/10 film for me.

The reason why it looses 1 point is because there are a few issues that I personally have with a certain element of a character. Primarily:

Luke Skywalker.

I like his conflict between him and Rey and the fact that Luke is against training Rey because of his failure with Kylo Ren, is absolutely fantastic. His arc is really strong, powerful and I like that he struggles with ultimately being ashamed of himself but rises to the occasion to save the remaining spark of hope in the galaxy, out of love for his friends and family.

All brilliant great stuff and he has a fascinating perspective on the Jedi.

BUT.... I feel it's not perfect because....

....I disagree with the fact that he even would think, even for a brief moment about killing Ben. This doesn't make ANY logical sense considering his character growth in the Original Trilogy.

Luke is impulsive yes

Luke has had dark side tendencies yes know. 

These aren't the problem with the film.

The problem is that Luke had already learned in Episode V that rushing into a battle and being reckless isn't the Jedi way, but for some reason he has a fleeting moment of homicidal ideation when his own nephew starts having a slight pull to the dark side?????

This makes utterly no sense, I'm sorry but I cannot defend this element of TLJ, I do NOT on a basic level, would believe from his character arc in the OT that Luke would even have a fleeting moment like this.

Sure! He'd be shocked AND AFRAID and have a trauma response that's fine and makes him human.

MEANWHILE, Luke in the original trilogy somehow was able to see THE GOOD in the relentless killing machine of pure hatred and darkness that is Darth Vader.

He sees the good in the man who terrorised the galaxy for TWO DECADES, but thought about killing his nephew in his sleep because he had a vision of the darkness within him.

Yes Luke explains that he was scared because he would end everything he loved.... Then why didn't you do the same thing with Ben as well you did with Vader?

If anything you should automatically go with this route because he's your nephew who hasn't actually done anything wrong yet other than have dark side related issues. YOU had dark side tendencies too Luke.

👏👏👏 10/10 Luke.

I appreciate Rian Johnson was trying to give us something different, he had the right idea, but he used the WRONG character to do it with.

Instead I would've flipped this interaction.

Ben Solo would go into Luke Skywalker's hut as he's meditating, being brought and pulled in to his location via the force. Ben himself would then use the force on Master Skywalker and would see a false & distorted vision of Luke killing him in the future from Snoke.

Ben being a reckless padawan would turn his saber on out of fear as this would've been building up in him for ages. Luke would've come out of his meditation and would be like "BEN NO!!!!" As he is in the original film.

It still contains the main theme of failure and the focus on Luke's legacy as a master/Jedi but doesn't contradict what Luke's already learnt.

But overall despite this I still like TLJ. I just feel this glaring issue gets in the way of the best part of the movie for me. You don't have to agree or disagree with me I'm just voicing my feelings.

I've been on antidepressants for anxiety for over a year now. I've done posts here a few years ago about how I was doing and I was in a pretty sad place emotionally.

But I feel different, I feel better. You still have your rough days (like everyone does) but you find ways to focus on the positive.

The world is a very conflicted place at the moment, but I think we as people can and have shown that we can be better.

Thank you for reading this.

- T-LJ2