Star Wars: 8 Ways The Last Jedi Says F**k You To J.J. Abrams

1. It Discards Every Plot Thread It Should've Carried And Expanded Upon

Of course, the main way The Last Jedi flips off its predecessor is by actively discarding every piece of setup we got in that movie.

Rey's parents? Nobodies, delivered by Daisy Ridley with just as much confusion as the audience was feeling. Kylo's training and potential 'step-up' to a higher rank? Discarded. Snoke? Killed. Rey's training? Rushed. Luke talking with Kylo about the latter leaving? Over in a flash. Discarded, even.

After many years apart, Luke says he's sorry, Kylo replies with "I bet you are!"

How... poignant.

Another feeling that comes alongside the utter deflation The Last Jedi leaves you with, is zero interest in where the franchise goes from here. Weirdly, for as random-feeling as Luke's death is, it rounds off Rian Johnson's instalment with a sense of finality that could end everything.

The themes of failure and the cyclical portrayal of wartime only reinforces that nothing in the past or future will matter, so why even reboot Star Wars in the first place? Why even invest in their plight, their arcs and their attempts at balance, if none of it matters?

Nothing from the Knights of Ren to Luke's first words mattered to Rian Johnson, and it's all of these things combined that ultimately gives The Last Jedi its disconnected feel - one that feels as incongruous now as back at launch.