Star Wars: the Last Jedi

Star Wars: the Last Jedi

As I said in my Rogue One review, Star Wars is my favourite film series. Now that we are going to get a new Star Wars film every year, it's a good time to be a fan.  Many fans (myself included) were worried that this would be too similar to Empire Strikes Back, seeing as how Force Awakens was a bit similar to A New Hope. I can confidently say, that is not the case. It might take cues here and there, they are totally seperate.

The Story - 7.5/10

Now with any film of any kind, I have things that I love about it, and things that I don't like. Every film is like that. The Last Jedi is no different. It took the story in very interesting and new ways that I had never seen in Star Wars, but it was also derailed by subplots that felt more like video game side quests. Said side quests that don't add anything to the original story. I managed to look past those but some other people might not be as forgiving as I am. For me, it developed the characters (both old and new) in ways that I didn't see coming and thoroughly was intrigued by and invested in. \

The Characters - 8/10

Daisy Ridley comes back as Rey and I have to admit that this performance surpasses Force Awakens. I mean she could emote in the last film, but I really felt connected and invested in her in this particular film. Her progression as a character is interesting to see play out, since she is the lens for how we see the force has changed in ways we have never seen before.

Adam Driver returns as Kylo Ren and he is easily my favourite character in this whole new trilogy. His backstory is better explained and you can see his inner torment throughout the film. It all comes from Adam Driver's performance. Despite the fact he did an angering act at the last film, we amazingly feel sympathetic towards him. We want to see him succeed despite the fact him succeeding will lead the other characters in hot water.

Mark Hamill returns to the iconic role of Luke Skywalker and he was quite a shock to the system. He portrays Luke not as a wide eyed, curious farm boy as we have known him to be. He is a broken, scarred character. It is quite depressing to see how far he has and still is falling. People were complaining about how his performance was accurate to the character. Take heed, those people are comparing the expanded universe character to this. EU Luke is overpowered and boring. Also, he doesn't exist anymore! The only thing they can do is do something new with Luke's character and that is what they have done and it is a wonder to see.

Now I will quickly say this. While certain characters were handled in a way that angered many people, seeing as how they were built up in the last movie. I loved the way it was done. Let's say that it shows that what we find important, no one in this universe finds it important.

The Action - 6/10

While everyone was getting in a tizz about unnecessary things. I was getting annoyed by how average the action the was. For a start there is a huge space battle at the beginning of the film but I was not invested in anything that was going on. It later continued with a hand to hand combat fight with lightsabers but even that wasn't terribly engaging or fun. Even though I think one guy got a lightsaber to the face at one point. The only scene that really got the stress up was when two characters had lightsabers again but it was filmed like an Akira Kurosawa film. The music intensifies and the camera focuses on them. That was so filled with tension that I was practically shivering. But that doesn't redeem otherwise average action scenes.

Conclusion

While I have some pretty glaring problems with the Last Jedi it was still the Star Wars I needed. It was refreshing, it took the series in a direction we had never seen before and left me with some enjoyment.

I am giving this a 7/10.