The eighth entry in the long-running “Star Wars” saga is finally out and where do I even begin with this? So far “The Last Jedi” seems to be absolutely tearing the fabric of fandom apart and splitting fans. Some claim this is nothing like “Star Wars” and ruins the franchise while others praise it as the greatest movie ever created.
I, like many others, like to find ourselves in something called “the middle ground” where I can appreciate many aspects of the movie while acknowledging flaws. If only movie criticism wasn’t as binary as it has become.
First of all, I LOVED “The Last Jedi.” I absolutely loved it, I thought it was a great addition to the franchise but there were various times throughout where I just knew that a “Star Wars” fan somewhere was seething with anger. There are some choices made in this movie that can upset some people and ruin their image of this character. There were one or two moments where I just *felt* fanboys getting angry, almost like I sensed it with the Force. I won’t be getting into anything too spoiler-heavy in this review since there are a lot of moments you should see for the first time in the theater, but let’s run down some basics:
WAS IT BETTER THAN THE "FORCE AWAKENS"?
I think it was, actually. "The Force Awakens" did a great job at reintroducing Star Wars to a new generation but in doing that they ended up repeating the exact same story from “Star Wars: A New Hope,” the very original “Star Wars” movie. This movie made some very interesting decisions regarding the new characters introduced in J.J. Abrams “Force Awakens” but that’s to be expected when a new director takes the helm. I was not aware of Rian Johnson filmography prior to watching this movie but I was impressed with how he handled the cinematography and most importantly the performances from the cast. It’s kind of interesting that J.J. Abrams is coming back for Episode 9 after the slight mess Johnson left his character and story by the end.
DID YOU NOT LIKE ANYTHING IN IT?
Well of course. My biggest concern was that “The Last Jedi” felt like the END of a trilogy rather than the middle part. Usually in a trilogy your second entry is when the stakes are very high and the balls are kept up in the air until the exciting conclusion in the final movie. It almost seems like all the plot lines in “Last Jedi” are wrapped up fairly well, I truly don’t know where they’re going to go with this story anymore...but I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing.
There is one moment in this movie that is so utterly ridiculous and goofy-looking that I couldn’t resist laughing out loud in the theater during my 2nd viewing. I won’t get too specific but it involves Carrie Fisher’s character, Princess Leia. I thought they handled her character very well, considering Fisher’s death late last year. The amount of respect and love the public has towards Carrie Fisher isn’t enough to stop people from making fun of this scene in particular. Again, not spoiling anything specific but you’ll know when you see it. It comes out of nowhere, ruins what could be an intense moment and utilizes some Force powers that were not hinted at in previous movies.
DO YOU LIKE IT MORE THAN THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY? HMMMM?!
I probably liked it more than the 3rd movie, “Return of the Jedi” but that’s about it. This doesn’t come close to the craft and the overall perfection of those first two “Star Wars” movies. I can confidently say that this was better than the horrendous Prequel Trilogy from the early 2000s however. I’ve heard people legitimately try to argue that any of the Prequel movies are better than “The Last Jedi” (and "The Force Awakens" actually) and I can’t wrap my head around it. The Prequels not only ruined the backstory of the greatest villain ever, Darth Vader, but they were also filmed with complete disregard for common sense or logic. Scenes don’t go anywhere, dialogue is laughably horrible and the tense, emotional moments from the Original trilogy are nowhere. They're also just horribly written, directed and were doomed the second George Lucas put pen to paper.
(ok WHY is there an 80s looking cafe in "Star Wars?" It's a story told "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...")
HOW WERE THE CHARACTERS?
I thought they all had some pretty interesting things to do in this movie...for the most part. In this new trilogy we follow Rey, Finn, Poe and Kylo Ren as the main players in the story. Finn and Poe get the short end of the stick in this movie, especially Finn. While I still liked his portion of the movie, there is some obvious filler to just expand on the run-time...which is odd considering another big complaint about this movie is the fact that it’s two and a half hours long.
What makes this movie great is the storyline shared by Rey, Kylo Ren and Luke Skywalker. Any scene with any of these three characters is extremely good and holds the entire movie together, everything else is fine but it’s something I feel like I want to fast forward just so I can get back to Luke and Rey on Luke’s little island of exile.
WHAT WERE THE DROIDS LIKE? THIS IS A STAR WARS MOVIE AFTER ALL!
You’re right, me. Droids are what *make* Star Wars, they add something unique. My favorite characters from the original trilogy were easily R2-D2 and C-3PO. I mean who doesn’t love bickering robots, especially when only one of them can communicate with just whistles and beeps? BB-8 from “The Force Awakens” quickly grew on me and he did some pretty badass stuff in “The Last Jedi.” Honestly I think he may have killed at least 20 people by the end, and that just makes him even cooler.
(I hope he eventually goes on to battle that evil looking BB-8 that the First Order seems to have on their ships.)
OK GIVE ME ONE OF YOUR SPOILER THOUGHTS. JUST ONE!
But what about people who haven’t seen the movie?
THEY’LL SKIP THIS LITTLE SECTION, I KNOW THERE’S ONE THING YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT.
Well that is true. Look, if you don’t want to be spoiled about ANYTHING then definitely skip out on these next couple paragraphs but it’s something I have to mention because it’s my absolute favorite part of the movie.
Ready?
Dude I can't believe that Yoda came back! I didn’t think this would actually happen to be honest. Ever since Disney has bought the “Star Wars” rights they’ve been completely milking every aspect of the franchise from the characters to iconic locations or ships but they’ve barely done anything with Yoda! The fact that he didn’t appear in “The Force Awakens” made me think Disney actually had restraint and didn’t shove in Yoda just because he’s a famous character.
Well they finally brought him back but I thought they did it very tastefully. First of all they got Frank Oz back to voice Yoda and they even used a puppet! A good, old fashioned puppet! After watching a CGI Yoda bounce around in a green blur in the prequels was heartbreaking and it’s so nice to see a little puppet walk across the screen and talk out of his little puppet mouth...it filled me with so much joy. When he first showed up on screen he looked completely animated though and I got pretty angry, the first couple shots he’s in make it look like he’s completely CGI, I think this was because he shows up as a Force Ghost. So initially he's surrounded by this blue glow that makes his face look all wonky, but as the scene continues you can clearly see it’s a puppet just like in the Original Trilogy.
Not only was seeing Yoda a treat, but the conversation he has with Luke at this point in the movie is incredibly poignant. Yoda explains that our failures are truly our greatest teachers, and this is important since the concept of “failure” seems to find all our main characters at some point in “The Last Jedi.”Ok, that's it with the specific spoilers
ok spoilers are over (but that picture probably ruined it)
I’m surprised I didn’t get into more spoilers to be honest, but I don’t want to ruin the twists this movie pulls on you. Usually at the end of my reviews I give my recommendation but I think in this case...you know yourself if you're going to watch a "Star Wars" movie or not. It's such a culturally important franchise and fans don't need any convincing to go check out the new movie. This is definitely going to be the main "Star Wars" movie that will be heavily debated and analyzed for years. I can’t believe we have to wait two years until Episode 9 but until then we have a Han Solo origin film coming out next year. Yep, a long standalone movie about Han Solo but when he was a younger man...yay?
