We\u2019re going to do something a little different here, faithful readers. I feel that I can\u2019t express what I like and dislike about this movie without giving away spoilers. So, for the first time in one of my reviews, I\u2019m going to spoil major plot points to the movie! Now, for those of you who have yet to see it, I\u2019m going to give you my star review up front. If that\u2019s all you want to know, stop right there and go see the movie before coming back and reading the rest of my review. That being said, I give \u201cThe Last Jedi\u201d three stars out of five. It\u2019s not better than any of the original trilogy, and it\u2019s not better than \u201cThe Force Awakens\u201d, but it is better than \u201cRogue One\u201d and any of the prequel trilogy movies. When it comes to seeing this movie in theatres, my advice is to see it twice, once to experience it with fresh eyes, and a second time to really soak it in with a more critical eye. However, you should only go during matinee fees, or with some kind of gift card. While worth seeing overall, this movie is not worth paying full price for. Alrighty then, onto the spoilers. This is your final warning. Seriously, I\u2019m about to give away everything, including the ending.<\/p>\n
Okay, for those of you who are still with us, \u201cStar Wars: The Last Jedi\u201d is a mixed bag. I\u2019m a fan of Rian Johnson, having seen all of his other movies, \u201cBrick\u201d, \u201cThe Brothers Bloom\u201d, and \u201cLooper\u201d. He\u2019s a talented writer, and a creative director, so I wanted to see what he would do when given the chance to play in the ultimate cinematic sandbox that is the Star Wars Universe. Some of his choices work, while others don\u2019t. Picking up where \u201cThe Force Awakens\u201d left off, Rey (played by the lovely and overdressed Daisy Ridley) has found Luke Skywalker (played by Mark Hamill in the highest profile movie he\u2019s been in since \u201cReturn of the Jedi\u201d) and must convince him to train her in the ways of the Force. However, Luke has turned into a human version of Oscar the Grouch, and wants nothing to do with the Jedi, the Force, or anything that is going wrong in the universe. Yes, he has gone full grumpy, \u201cget off of my lawn\u201d, \u201cold man yells at cloud\u201d mode for this installment. Rey is also haunted by Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), who can now communicate with her through the Force, to the point they can even physically interact with one other.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, General Leia Organa (the late Carrie Fisher), Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), and Vice Admiral Holdo (Laura Dern), are trying to rally the remains of the Resistance against the First Order, who are breathing down their necks. Finn (John Boyega) wakes up from the coma he was left in, and goes on a side quest to a planet called Canto Bite, to find a means to disable a tracking device that the First Order are using to find the base of the Resistance. He\u2019s joined by Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran), a fellow maintenance crew member, whose sister died in dogfight with the First Order. So right away, we have parallels of \u201cThe Empire Strikes Back\u201d, with all of protagonists being split into teams and doing their own thing.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll start with the movie\u2019s shortcomings. Many of these might be considered nit-picking to some, but I think they are problematic enough to make or break the movie for others. Leia survives. Yeah, that\u2019s going to make the last installment to this trilogy awkward. She\u2019s alive and well by the end of this movie, so I don\u2019t see how they will explain her absence in the next movie. Not unless the opening scroll will read \u201cLeia Organa has died peacefully in her sleep\u201d. Honestly, the studio had a full year to do reshoots and careful editing to give Leia a grand finale, but they chose not to. There is a scene of the Resistance’s main ship being attacked, and Leia being sucked out into outer space as a result. It\u2019s here where one of the movie\u2019s biggest twists takes place, as Leia is able to use the Force to pull herself back onto the ship. It\u2019s kinda jarring to see, especially when you consider this is the second time this year that Disney has released a space opera movie with a character floating around in space. I\u2019m talking of course about \u201cGuardians of the Galaxy Vol 2\u201d. Needless to say, this scene will probably have lots of Marvel fans yelling out \u201cI\u2019m Mary Poppins, y\u2019all!\u201d. Or it might give older audience members flashbacks of Sally Field as the Flying Nun. Leia then slips into a coma, but wakes up in time for the third and final act. In my humble opinion, they should have had her die while in said coma. Now the writers will have to think of proper way to give the character a send off, without having to use a CGI likeness in this trilogy’s final installment. It\u2019s a wasted opportunity, but that\u2019s just my opinion.<\/p>\n
The entire subplot with Canto Bite is a dumpster fire of a hot mess. It turns out, the planet is a giant, intergalactic casino. For a split second, I thought that Disney bought Lionsgate while no one was looking, because the scenery looked like something out of the Capitol from \u201cThe Hunger Games\u201d! You could have taken this whole sequence, removed it, and edited it into any one of the prequel movies, and it would have fit there perfectly. Yikes! Not to mention, it does nothing for the story as whole, and is outright cheesy at times. Finn and Rose meet a shady character named DJ (Benicio Del Toro being his usual, mumbly Benicio Del Toro self). DJ gets the duo onto a First Order ship, and then betrays them for money. That\u2019s it. That\u2019s all they do with Del Toro. Yeah, underwritten much?<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Rey and Luke are annoying the hell out of each other. Rey has a badass lightsaber training scene that ends with a bit of humor, and then copies \u201cEmpire\u201d again, by going into a mysterious place that gives her an eerie vision about herself. From there, it goes into \u201cReturn of the Jedi\u201d territory, as Rey goes to confront Kylo Ren by herself, and is taken to see Supreme Leader Snoke. From there, Snoke tries to, you guessed it, convince Rey to join the dark side, even if it means using the Force to kill her in the process. This leads to, you guessed it, Kylo turning against Snoke, and killing him. At the very least, before all this happens, we get to see the answer to the age-old question \u201cwhat happens if your ship were to hit something while traveling in light speed?\u201d. That is quite possibly the most visually stunning scene in the whole movie, and it saves the Holdo character, who was otherwise useless, outside of verbally castrating Poe every chance she gets.<\/p>\n
Lastly, we have a final act on Crait, or as I call it, \u201cthe planet that bleeds\u201d, for what looks very much like the Battle of Hoth from \u201cEmpire\u201d, except the planet is covered in salt instead of snow. Finn, who easily bested Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie, whose role is even more wasted here than Del Toro’s) in a fight just two scenes earlier, attempts a suicide mission against the new AT-AT Walkers and a “battering ram cannon”, but is saved at the last second by Rose, who then proclaims her love for him. And just when it seems that all hope is lost, Rey and Luke show up to save the day. While these are all neat visuals, it\u2019s all rather predictable.<\/p>\n
Now, before I go into a further tirade over what the movie did wrong, here\u2019s a few things that I liked. I thought Luke got a proper send off. It was a callback to the scene in \u201cA New Hope\u201d, as he looked upon the twin Suns of Tatooine. Speaking of which, there\u2019s another, more fun callback to \u201cNew Hope\u201d between Luke and R2-D2. Luke has one last saber fight against Kylo Ren (unfortunately, without his green saber), which turns out to be one big Force projection, and then he fades away like Obi-Wan and Yoda before him. Some people might complain that\u2019s not good enough of a death, to which I say, how did you want him to die, have his head cut off by Kylo?! Some fans might even disapprove of Luke being killed off, period, but frankly, I had a feeling this trilogy was going to end with all of the legacy characters being dead, and it seems I was right. Overall, the use of Crait\u2019s \u201cbleeding\u201d effect is put to good use, and we even got to see Luke interact with Leia and C3PO one last time.<\/p>\n
The duel between Kylo and Rey against Snoke\u2019s guards is fun. It brings new weaponry to the lightsaber duels, and lightsaber duels are the number one reason why I continue to watch Star Wars movies. Unfortunately, this sequence doesn\u2019t top the visuals of the three-way duel from \u201cThe Phantom Menace\u201d, nor does it have the emotional storytelling of Luke vs Darth Vader from \u201cEmpire\u201d or \u201cJedi\u201d. Also, Rey\u2019s shirt isn\u2019t cut in half, like with Padme\u2019s during \u201cAttack of the Clones\u201d. Yes, that\u2019s not really something to hold against the movie, but come on, Daisy Ridley worked hard to get into shape for this movie; you might as well let her abs out, and show off the fruits of her labor. I\u2019m glad that the scene ends with the old, blue Skywalker lightsaber being destroyed. As I mentioned above, I prefer the green saber that Luke debuted in \u201cJedi\u201d, and while we do get to see it in this movie, it\u2019s not put to use in a duel. Hopefully Rey will get an unique saber of her own in the next movie, preferably a purple colored, pike one.<\/p>\n
The porgs, those rat\/bird things that people are hating on for no reason. For the most part, they are cute and inoffensive. They are never mentioned by name, and they have no reason for being in the movie besides some cheap laughs and more merchandise to sell to little kids. That being said, I don\u2019t hate them all. In fact, I forgot about them quite easily mere hours after seeing the movie. So on the scale of annoying things in Star Wars that were meant only to appeal to small children, porgs are dead last. Ewoks are in the middle, mostly because at least they couldn\u2019t talk and they served a purpose for the overall story arch of the movie. JarJar Binks, of course, ranks number one for being the absolute worst thing made by the Star Wars movies (I repeat, the movies, the Christmas Special doesn\u2019t count). In other words, don\u2019t worry about the porgs ruining the movie like JarJar in the prequels, because they didn\u2019t. Although, overall, BB-8 remains the MVP of cuteness and scene stealing, just like he was in “Force Awakens”.<\/p>\n
And, in a bit of fan service, we get a guest appearance by Force ghost Yoda. And even better, it\u2019s puppet Yoda, not CGI Yoda. It\u2019s good for a laugh and a bit of nostalgia. I\u2019ve already heard fans complain over why Force ghost Obi-Wan wasn\u2019t there, too, but there\u2019s the little fact that Alec Guinness has been dead for nearly two decades now, and there was a backlash over using CGI to bring Peter Cushing back to life as Grand Moff Tarkin in \u201cRogue One\u201d. And if they used Ewan McGregor as young Obi-Wan, that probably would have caused a backlash, too, because it wouldn\u2019t make sense for Obi-Wan\u2019s Force ghost to de-age for no reason. To this day, I consider using the young version of Anakin Skywalker\u2019s Force ghost for the final scene of \u201cJedi\u201d to be the dumbest addition to the special editions of the original trilogy. Yes, even more so than not having Han shoot first in \u201cNew Hope\u201d.<\/p>\n
Now back to the bad stuff. To me, the movie\u2019s biggest letdowns are not answering any of the questions that were set up by \u201cThe Force Awakens\u201d. Who is Snoke? Doesn\u2019t matter, he\u2019s killed off before we know anything about him. Who are Rey\u2019s parents? Doesn\u2019t matter, they are dismissed simply as \u201cdrunks in a peasant\u2019s grave on Jakku\u201d. Surely Captain Phasma will be given more time to be a badass. Oh no, she\u2019s killed off after having less than ten minutes of screentime. Surely they will explore more of that vision that Rey had in which the Knights of Ren attacked the Jedi Temple that Luke was in charge of. Nope, they skip over that and just say Kylo did it by himself. Yeah, if you were like me, and were looking forward to these mystery plot points being answered after waiting for two years, you\u2019re probably going to be disappointed.<\/p>\n
Some might say I\u2019m just being a whiny fanboy, but I see this as lazy, even downright bad storytelling. Consider if you, the cliffhanger of \u201cEmpire Strikes Back\u201d, with Han being taken away to Jabba the Hutt. Now imagine if \u201cReturn of the Jedi\u201d started with Han already being rescued and everyone acting like nothing happened. Or even worse, imagine if Han didn\u2019t appear in the movie at all, and everyone was acting like he was never part of the trilogy in the first place. That\u2019s what these \u201creveals\u201d feel like. It\u2019s as though Rian Johnson couldn\u2019t care less about what JJ Abrams was setting up, so he just shot down everything he was supposed to follow through on. Some fans will point out these parallels to \u201cJedi\u201d, in which The Emperor was killed off without knowing anything about him, just like Snoke. That it makes sense for Luke to become a broken hermit, because that\u2019s what happened to Obi-Wan and Yoda. That Captain Phasma being killed off in an underwhelming manner, same as with Boba Fett is okay, and that we didn\u2019t know about Luke\u2019s mother, so it\u2019s alright that we know nothing about Rey\u2019s parents. Frankly, after three decades since the original trilogy, we shouldn\u2019t have such mistakes and plot holes being made again.<\/p>\n
Not going to lie, I was betting money that Rey was going to be the granddaughter of Obi-Wan, or that Snoke was going to be the reincarnation of Darth Plagueis the Wise. Instead, this movie says \u201cNope, those are trivial details that don\u2019t matter. We\u2019re moving onto the next scene without developing anything else. If you want more backstory, buy and read our spin-off novels\u201d. I think that\u2019s kicking the fans right in the nuts. All this information is obviously being withheld on purpose because the real answers are going to be revealed in the final trilogy installment, or other tie-in movies. Frankly, I consider that as stringing the audience along, and I don\u2019t like.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t get me wrong, I don\u2019t hate this movie. It\u2019s still entertaining, and it brings new ideas to the franchise. My main problems with it are with the creative choices that were made. If you made me choose between watching this movie or any of the prequels or \u201cRogue One\u201d, I would gladly watch this movie. Yes, Disney is making questionable decisions with Star Wars, but I don\u2019t think they are ruining the franchise, as Lucas did that himself with the special editions that hardly improve upon the movies, or the prequels that only resulted in causing plot holes and errors within the entire saga. And before you say \u201cOh, they should have just gone with Lucas\u2019 proposed ideas for the this new trilogy\u201d, well surprise, Luke going into exile was Lucas\u2019 idea, so don\u2019t blame the Disney approved writers\u2019 room for that one. If you ask me, none of these steps should have been taken. No special editions, no prequels, no selling the rights to Disney. Lucas should have just adapted the Thrawn Trilogy novels, and hired other directors to make them. Those novels are what rekindled interest in Star Wars in the first place, and Lucas wouldn\u2019t have had to come up with new stories, because they were right there for him to copy from. But hey, history turned out differently, and this is the Star Wars we have, like it or not.<\/p>\n
I know I came across as a hater during most of this review, but after all, this is Star Wars were talking about. It\u2019s a major touchstone in cinematic history. Entire lives and the movie industry as a whole were altered by the making and watching of these movies. Now forty years later, these movies will continue to alter the lives of those who had a hand in creating them, and those who watch them. Some people would argue \u201cthese are just movies\u201d, or \u201cthey\u2019re just two hour long toy ads for children\u201d, but I would argue back, \u201cno, they are something much more to millions of people, you\u2019re just not getting it\u201d. The saga will continue, warts and all. Chances are, you will die before the movie franchise will come to an end. It\u2019s up to you to consider that a good thing, or a bad thing. But hell no, I\u2019m not paying for a seperate Disney based streaming service in the event they finally do create a live action Star Wars TV series. Either you put that thing on Hulu, or I\u2019ll just torrent it online! I maybe a Star Wars fan, but even I have my limits! See you next time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We\u2019re going to do something a little different here, faithful readers. I feel that I can\u2019t express what I like and dislike about this movie without giving away spoilers. So, for the first time in one of my reviews, I\u2019m going to spoil major plot points to the movie! Now, for those of you who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film"],"yoast_head":"\n