For various reasons, at least half of Star Wars fans (us included) didn’t like “The Last Jedi.”

The people who didn’t like it because it had too many strong female leads or people of varied races are not really Star Wars fans (if they were, they would know “Star Wars” had perhaps the strongest movie female ever when it debuted in 1977, and multiple races have always been part of George Lucas’ galaxy).

The real reasons this film ranks below even the annoying “Phantom Menace” as the worst among the 10 made so far: (1) the dumbfoundingly stupid “chase” plot (2) Luke’s lost character (3) the controversial use of the Force (4) the comical bad guys (5) unnecessary drama around the good guys.

“Let them run out of gas!” That was the entire strategy of the First Order fleet. It must have been Rian Johnson’s homage to the O.J. Simpson police chase. But it got this movie off to a bad start it never recovered from.

No one who actually lived in this galaxy and knew anything about space flight would have gotten caught up in such one-dimensional thinking (space is not a California freeway). The First Order had at least half a dozen ships pursuing Leia & Co. — and none could catch up? And they didn’t think to use hyperspace to come in ahead of the little Rebel fleet and surround it? General Hux is one of the most moronic bad guys in Star Wars history. Vader would have choked the whiny twit to death in the first few minutes of “Last Jedi” (if he hadn’t already killed him in “Force Awakens”).

Meanwhile, how stupid was Laura Dern’s character, Vice Admiral Holdo? First, she wouldn’t tell Poe Dameron her plan, so he thought she was sabotaging the Resistance, which led to a “Crimson Tide”-style mutiny. There was no reason for that other than Johnson wanting to create more melodrama. Some argue that Holdo had good reason to withhold the plan from the brash, insubordinate Dameron. Maybe, but why wouldn’t she fill him in when he pulled the mutiny? Seemed like a good time to speak up, instead of keeping stubbornly tight-lipped and creating a mini-civil war in the middle of a crisis.

And why did Holdo kill herself? Why not program the ship to hit hyperspace after she had escaped? Way too much melodrama involving Dern’s character, which really made what should have been a strong female character weak.

The side plot involving Finn and Rose’s visit to the casino planet was comical and fun, but it was based on another silly plot idea: “We need a codebreaker, and we have plenty of time for a side trip to find one.” These characters were used to play everyman and give regular people — and probably newer fans, especially — a sense of ownership in this 40-year-old, larger-than-life saga.

Of course, the main focuses of the film were the Force users. And that’s where the director really failed.

Luke’s new outlook on life was reasonable, from a certain point of view. And then it became surreal — a rocky roller coaster that didn’t make much sense. Even Mark Hamill thought the drastic change in Luke was too much.

Sure, Luke was disillusioned after losing Ben Solo to the Dark Side. But, once Rey arrived seeking his help, why would he simply tell her the Jedi should die out when he knows the Dark Side is still active? That was irresponsible at best, malicious at worst. Luke basically turned into a Gray Jedi, neutrally not caring what happened to the galaxy — until he changed his mind at the end with his surprise finale. Even then, he made little difference and chickened out with his pointless suicide.

There were a lot of new Force powers at work in this one, most of which did not make sense given what we knew about the Force from eight previous movies.

Jedi ghosts have never interacted with the material world, so it was odd to see a ghost Yoda, maniacally laughing, burn down the so-called Jedi roots — even if he was trying to make a point to a disillusioned Luke and nothing of value remained there. Why would a 60-year-old Luke need guidance from Yoda anyway? It was a poor play for original-trilogy nostalgia by Johnson.

Meanwhile, inexperienced Force users Rey and Kylo were linked across the galaxy by Gollum — er, Snoke — something not even Luke and his father ever did. Jedi have the ability to feel great disturbances in the Force — something we saw with Obi-Wan in “Star Wars” when the Death Star blew up Alderaan and several times thereafter. But Jedi and Sith have never linked minds across the galaxy, so this was a major stretch that seemed very off.

And to those who would argue that Snoke was a powerful Force user who facilitated that link, we would offer this: He was SO powerful that he let a neophyte kill him with a simple lightsaber trick. That was just another example of the very poor bad guys created by J.J. Abrams and picked up by Johnson. These New Order nitwits are nothing next to Vader and Palpatine, who were scary and dangerous as hell in Lucas’ movies.

As for Luke’s finale, it was a powerful use of the Force we have never seen. We have no objection to it, except that it seemed pretty pointless. Instead of going to face Kylo himself, Luke chose to poke at him with a Force-projected, cross-galaxy hologram that cost Luke his life. Basically, he committed suicide, with the only real achievement being to help Leia’s ragged little band escape (though they went out the back way, so they could have escaped without Luke’s suicidal distraction). Not really the insignificant end we would have picked for Luke. (And Johnson made the mistake of having a holographic Luke interact with Leia physically — an obvious impossibility.)

Luke’s disinterest in training Rey (the only new character we like) and climactic suicide leave the Jedi trainee without anyone to guide her (unless you count those Jedi tomes). She was more a prop in this film, used to show Luke’s regressive path and facilitate Snoke’s lame death. Yeah, there were those silly mind melds with Kylo, in which he said her parents were no one of significance (does it really matter?). But her character made no progress and still has not found her “place in all of this” as we head to the final chapter.

With Han, Luke and Leia all gone, that is really the only thing we have to look forward to in Episode IX …