The Last Jedi
Directed by: Rian Johnson
Grade: C-
Oh man, I had to think about this one because it was my most anticipated movie of the year and truth be told I found it, at best, disappointing. The movie picks up right where The Force Awakens left off. Rey handing Luke his light saber and the First Order stalking the rebellion about to put them down for good.
Spoilers below:
Good First:
The acting was on point across the board. I felt like everyone had chemistry with the actors in their respective storylines.
I liked the deepening connection between Rey and Kylo- it seems to be going toward them balancing the force together.
Bittersweet as it was I was happy to get a Luke and Leia scene although once again it made me think of how much potential was lost and how much their lives really went to crap after they beat them Empire. 🙁
For the most part I thought the movie looked good and I did like the ending ideas of “hope” and that The Last Jedi was many people and they were probably on the rise again. Meanwhile if anything ever happens to BB8 I think the whole universe might fall.
Now to the Problems:
Poe’s (Oscar Issac) storyline concluded in such a way that made him look foolish and was based on one of those keep the information away from someone for no reason except it gives them something to do/ surprise the audience and nine times out of ten that drives me crazy.
Like in this case. I also think not telling him the information hurt the Holdo character (Laura Dern) because otherwise I really liked her but I was so annoyed by that whole thing it colored the character.
Unfortunately Poe’s storyline was wrapped up in another problem for me. Mainly Finn and Rose (John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran) really had nothing to do that was relevant in the long run. The stuff with the hacker drug endlessly for me and it really just didn’t amount to anything but causing them to be betrayed.
The last thing I’ll say about that particular storyline was as great as Princess Leia was I thought the floating Leia, Jedi save, Superman thing was really corny. I’m not going to argue the Force pull or could she do it. I’m totally willing to suspend my disbelief so I’ll just say I thought it was really poorly shot.
I had less issues with the Rey, Kylo and Luke story but there were a lot of decisions made character wise that you can go back and forth and debate but I don’t think they were really earned.
I mean okay, so the guy who saw the good in a psychopath who actually had committed endless murders that he would risk his life to try to save him decided to off his young nephew because he was “wavering.” Can you do that to Luke Skywalker? I don’t have a problem with the idea of it but to me it lacked. Because they didn’t really give us a single reason for Luke to do it. We didn’t see him get from point A to point Murder.
Oh, Kylo did go dark but the film seemed to make the argument that moment was the breaking point. Luke even says, “It wasn’t Snoke.” So why? Why would Luke even consider it just because he was wavering when he had fought for his father? He questioned Rey to but in the end he helped her.
I’m also not against the idea of getting rid of Snoke but I felt like it was way to easy to the point where I was thinking, “How was this guy ever a threat?” Considering he didn’t see that one coming. Lose all the theories on him and the possible motives leaving Kylo in charge for the end point. But he’s definitely unstable and so far easily beaten (by everyone but Snoke apparently). His motives seem to be “killing the past,” (same as the movie apparently).
I don’t know. I think Phasma turned out to be sadly pointless as well and went too quick. With Snoke gone and everything I’ve seen of Hux (especially in this movie) being more comedy it’s going to be hard to see the new first order as a threat.
I do appreciate risk-taking and I understand and believe they have to move Star Wars forward. I also admit I watched this with my brother (whose never seen the originals) and he liked it a lot more. I feel like the biggest problem in this movie might be the fact that they didn’t have any real plan for this trilogy. The Last Jedi felt like it left out the important stuff and filled it with well, filler.
Recommend: Eh. It’s Star Wars and it definitely had strong points and good moments. But this might go down as one of my least favorites of the series.