Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) Movie Review

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)   4/54/54/54/54/5


Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

Forced with the Farce

The Republic is still under heavy attack from The First Order with Snoke still controlling both Kylo Ren and General Hux. Meanwhile Rey has tracked down Luke Sykywalker hoping to firstly get him to come back and help the rebels and if not to train her up to use the Force. But Luke is still hurt by his history involving Kylo Ren and fears that Rey does not understand the full scale of the darkness lurking in Kylo Ren's heart.

This review is going to be a list of observations and not my usual sort of review because "Star Wars" is such a big brand movie that it doesn't require the usual sort of review. So first observation on "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" is that the movie definitely starts off with a strong humorous tone and at times it is too strong. I won't go in details but there are some scenes where the humour is just completely unrealistic even if it is funny and at the same time some of the humour is completely out of character which doesn't fit comfortably with my expectations.

On the subject of character I have my second observation and that is what we get from Luke and Leia just doesn't ring true with Leia doing things which for me lack precedence from what we know about her to Luke having a completely different, heavily jaded character. Basically Luke might as well have been a drunk waiting to die as his character was too different to the Luke I am sure most of us would have wanted to see.

But that leads me to the third observation and it is clear that the writers behind not just "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" but the last movie have focused on leading the franchise in a familiar but younger direction with understandably the focus being on the characters of Rey, Finn, Pow, Kylo Ren and now Rose. And it works because we have that mix of learning a bit more about them, but there still being mystery and with Rose we have another character who looks like they will have a pivotal part to play in this ongoing franchise.

Of course there is the fourth observation which is that "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" is visually spectacular and one of those movies which you simply can't take in fully when you watch it just the once. And despite the long running time it doesn't feel that long, yes time flies when you watch and when it is over you are ready to watch it again, right away.

What this all boils down to is that there are some parts to "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" which don't work how I would have liked them to work but as a whole this movie lives up to expectations with great visuals, character development, mystery and a surprise or two.


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