The Last Jedi Was a Disgrace.

Great storytelling is everything. You can bring an audience in with an interesting premise, but what makes them stay is an interesting conflict. There seems to be a lack of substance in today's Hollywood market. The Oscar films come and go each season, but the box office winners are more often than not anomalies in regards to storytelling.

I would use Jumanji as an example, but, in honor of the topic of Space Opera's (and being that I love Star Wars) I find that it is imperative to point out the glaring lack of craft that The Last Jedi had.

This is in no particular order of importance, as all of these mistakes are equally problematic.

First, you can't have a Hero's journey without the journey itself. Seriously, when has Rey struggled, when has she shown adversity and had to overcome a difficult obstacle to test her mettle? She is already supposedly as powerful as a Jedi, and yet we've seen no growth. With Luke Skywalker, he was just a young twerp working on his relatives farm. He had dreams for himself, but made goofy mistakes along the way, getting in that fight in the cantina, arguing with Han, getting mauled by a Wampa, struggling with Yoda and being impatient, getting his arm cut off. Keep in mind ALL of that happened in 2 movies for Luke, same amount as Rey and yet what is her story? Nevermind the fact we're to believe she has no mythological background to explain her strength, as Star Wars usually goes by.

Second, the treatment of older characters has been a disgrace. The logical fallacies lie strongest here. From Han Solo's death getting swept under the rug to Luke going from seeing the light in Vader to wanting to kill his nephew for seeing similar strength, the writing feels haphazard and half-assed for the older characters. It has become so obvious Disney wants to push this new generation they've created. Don't even get me started on Leia and the random new force ability which allowed her to breathe instead of getting the logical and proper death she deserved because as we all know, Carrie Fisher is dead.

Lastly third, it feels as if there are no stakes at this point. The original trilogy always had conflicts arising and the characters in dire need. So far this new trilogy has created a carbon copy of A New Hope's mega-antagonist, and just some more ships in space flying around. There is no reign of terror shown, no power established. The First Order seem like a bunch of intergalactic boyscouts. Now the entire resistance can fit on the Millenium Falcon, Luke's dead, I expect Leia to be as well, and I anticipate the writers to have Rey Mary Sue her way through Episode 9 with ease and take down the First Order buy and large by herself. But it won't matter in the future, the future of Star Wars writing has proven it doesn't worry about bridging gaps of logic between trilogies. A new First Order will inevitably rise with another super weapon. 

I swear Star Wars, a few more films like this and I might stop coming.