the last jedi is an admirable attempt at a new brand of star wars that still attempts to stay true to the roots of its formula. admittedly it is a noble feat, though in some areas of the film it does indeed fall flat, anticlimactic and so-forth. the film's aspirations are less than aided by its lackluster character arc and more than bland acting in some areas.
i'll always want to re-watch rogue one for its stunning visuals, acting and story arc that is contained within its 133 minute run-time. rogue one is a staple of what a fan of such a wide reaching movie series with minor directive skills can perform when the limits are pushed; when concepts are thrown into the mix, the formula is changed, the roles are reversed into an antihero state and so-forth. rogue one is subtle without zeal to call to its inclusions and above all, it is ambitious without being self-indulgent.
whilst rian johnson's skills go without statement as a foreword (looper, per example), and he attempted his best, ultimately the dis-interesting stature of the last jedi is down to bad acting and cliche. i think it goes without saying that daisy ridley's acting diversity is incredibly contained - i'd even stretch to say she's a bad actress - but it's clear that she is not fit for such a role of 'rey'. it feels to me that every actor and actress (scarce for a few; oscar isaac as an example) is only able to contain one type of emotion to their acting that they can really sell to the audience, so it's just been decided that their characters will be written for that one emotion.
though, i was pleasantly surprised with the new arc of adam driver's 'kylo ren', considering his role was heavily criticized in the force awakens as being an emo teen boy who was only there to cause a ruckus. on the contrary, mark hamill's role felt completely unnecessary and contributed very little to the arc of the story to come in episode 9. his plot pivot as a character newly introduced felt rushed, clunky; and ultimately, pointless. the other characters are self-explanatory. i couldn't really care for what happens to them considering that they're written as a hollow shell with only the facade of a character arc that is completely weak and unstructured in my honest opinion.
the shot of rey becoming force aware and the waterfall shot in reverse to a hard cut to rey's hand was interesting; probably the most breathtaking and visually intriguing of the whole film. there wasn't much to the visuals of the white/red planet that was shown to be so hyped in the trailers. once again in comparison to rogue one, this is just weak.
i'd agree to the fact that this is a film for star wars fans, and will most likely be shunned by audiences because of its long run time and 'star wars terminology', but this is solid evidence that a longer run time and more-known director won't always make the better film. more is achieved and to be admirable of in the shorter running, lesser rejoiced rogue one.
tl;dr - watch rogue one, you'll like it much more and it's feats compared to this clunky, nonsensical and lackluster next step in the 2010s star wars triolgy; the last jedi.