Star Wars: The Last Jedi Review
BEWARE! STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI SPOILERS INSIDE!
I can honestly say that Star Wars: The Last Jedi was unlike any Star Wars I’ve ever seen. This was the first time ever leaving a Star Wars film thinking “Did I waste my time?” Rian Johnson’s newest Star Wars episode was over 2 and a half hours, and it dragged on and on and on. Before watching the movie I would’ve been excited for a Star Wars film this long, but unfortunately The Last Jedi was dreadfully boring. Every time we went from the casino planet back to the rebel ship I felt a little disappointed; there were even audible sighs of disappointment from people in the theater. If the film streamlined some plot lines and condensed the movie to a little over 2 hours it would have been significantly better.
Right off the bat the movie started with a weird feeling. Poe Dameron starts off calling General Hux with a prank phone call, it got quite a few laughs, and there lies the problem. I’ve never considered Star Wars a funny film series, there’s been a few wise cracks here and there but I don’t think anyone would deem it consistently funny. This movie tried to do just that. It took me out of the Star Wars film, and it made it feel like a Guardians of the Galaxy film. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Guardians, just not when I’m expecting a Star Wars movie. The opening sequence is something I would expect from Peter Quill, not from a rebel fighter in the middle of a war.
A large section of the movie dealt with Finn and Rose going to a Great Gatsby inspired planet, and Poe’s hot-headiness on the rebel ship. If Admiral Holdo told Poe of their plan right from the start, there wouldn’t be a need to splinter off on a secret mission. Poe’s failed coup, the introduction of DJ, Finn and Rose being thrown in jail, did any of those scenes add anything to the film on a grander scale? The rebels still made it hideout, we’ll never see Benecio Del Toro again, and I don’t feel any connection towards Rose. I think this was the main reason I felt the movie dragged on for so long. It felt like Rian Johnson was told to stretch out his film a bit and threw in a filler episode right in the middle.
I think they killed the wrong characters much too early. In The Force Awakens we’re introduced to Snoke, this big bad galactic dictator who has somehow managed to take over the Empire. He’s a mysterious character pulling the strings from behind; we don’t even see him for real in Episode 7, only in a hologram. Now, we enter his chambers for a dramatic scene, hopefully we can learn what makes this villain so terrifying, or how he took over the Empire, or his origin, or how he found Kylo, or any number of questions. But instead, they kill him off after answering nothing about his character. Why introduce Snoke if we’re not going to learn about him, or there’s no character development. When Snoke died, that meant nothing to me because we had no relation with the character. It was wasted potential. And the same goes for Captain Phasma. Here we have this bad ass Storm Trooper, strikes fear in her enemies, and was in merchandising all over the place, only to die for the sake of dying. These villains could’ve been expanded upon and turned into proper characters, but instead we got this.
There were some classic characters that appeared in this film, and they were handled terribly as well. Admiral Ackbar, the war hero from the first rebellion, was killed off screen. It felt like they put him in the film simply because he’s a meme now, so the character is recognizable. If you had Ackbar sacrificing himself on the ship instead of Holdo it would have been a much better send off. The Last Jedi also brought Yoda to the series. I love Yoda, he’s one of the greatest Star Wars characters, but his introduction felt incredibly forced. His appearance didn’t serve any purpose; Luke still did exactly what he set out to do. Yoda was in it simply for fan service.
Not everything about the film was all bad though. It had some visually stunning scenes throughout. It suffered from the same issue that Dawn of Justice did, it focused too much on individual sequences, and not enough on the collective story. The silent shot of Holdo’s lightspeed ship destroying the Empire’s dreadnaught was absolutely stunning, as were many of the shots before a fight. The Kylo and Rey team up, and the Kylo versus Luke battles were gorgeous. However, these few scenes were not enough to save the overall messy movie.
All in all, I felt very whelmed about The Last Jedi; not overwhelmed, not underwhelmed, just whelmed. And because of all the poor plot points and the length of the film I’m giving Star Wars: The Last Jedi a 5/10.
Right off the bat the movie started with a weird feeling. Poe Dameron starts off calling General Hux with a prank phone call, it got quite a few laughs, and there lies the problem. I’ve never considered Star Wars a funny film series, there’s been a few wise cracks here and there but I don’t think anyone would deem it consistently funny. This movie tried to do just that. It took me out of the Star Wars film, and it made it feel like a Guardians of the Galaxy film. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Guardians, just not when I’m expecting a Star Wars movie. The opening sequence is something I would expect from Peter Quill, not from a rebel fighter in the middle of a war.
A large section of the movie dealt with Finn and Rose going to a Great Gatsby inspired planet, and Poe’s hot-headiness on the rebel ship. If Admiral Holdo told Poe of their plan right from the start, there wouldn’t be a need to splinter off on a secret mission. Poe’s failed coup, the introduction of DJ, Finn and Rose being thrown in jail, did any of those scenes add anything to the film on a grander scale? The rebels still made it hideout, we’ll never see Benecio Del Toro again, and I don’t feel any connection towards Rose. I think this was the main reason I felt the movie dragged on for so long. It felt like Rian Johnson was told to stretch out his film a bit and threw in a filler episode right in the middle.
I think they killed the wrong characters much too early. In The Force Awakens we’re introduced to Snoke, this big bad galactic dictator who has somehow managed to take over the Empire. He’s a mysterious character pulling the strings from behind; we don’t even see him for real in Episode 7, only in a hologram. Now, we enter his chambers for a dramatic scene, hopefully we can learn what makes this villain so terrifying, or how he took over the Empire, or his origin, or how he found Kylo, or any number of questions. But instead, they kill him off after answering nothing about his character. Why introduce Snoke if we’re not going to learn about him, or there’s no character development. When Snoke died, that meant nothing to me because we had no relation with the character. It was wasted potential. And the same goes for Captain Phasma. Here we have this bad ass Storm Trooper, strikes fear in her enemies, and was in merchandising all over the place, only to die for the sake of dying. These villains could’ve been expanded upon and turned into proper characters, but instead we got this.
There were some classic characters that appeared in this film, and they were handled terribly as well. Admiral Ackbar, the war hero from the first rebellion, was killed off screen. It felt like they put him in the film simply because he’s a meme now, so the character is recognizable. If you had Ackbar sacrificing himself on the ship instead of Holdo it would have been a much better send off. The Last Jedi also brought Yoda to the series. I love Yoda, he’s one of the greatest Star Wars characters, but his introduction felt incredibly forced. His appearance didn’t serve any purpose; Luke still did exactly what he set out to do. Yoda was in it simply for fan service.
Not everything about the film was all bad though. It had some visually stunning scenes throughout. It suffered from the same issue that Dawn of Justice did, it focused too much on individual sequences, and not enough on the collective story. The silent shot of Holdo’s lightspeed ship destroying the Empire’s dreadnaught was absolutely stunning, as were many of the shots before a fight. The Kylo and Rey team up, and the Kylo versus Luke battles were gorgeous. However, these few scenes were not enough to save the overall messy movie.
All in all, I felt very whelmed about The Last Jedi; not overwhelmed, not underwhelmed, just whelmed. And because of all the poor plot points and the length of the film I’m giving Star Wars: The Last Jedi a 5/10.
Have you seen it a second time. Go into it knowing it isn't your old star wars. The movie starts off with that to set the tone of movie that this isn't going to be what you think. Kylo is the idea that the past (ie. The classic 3 movies) needs to die or change the way things are done. Rey is the idea that the past needs to be learned and to build upon it. Kylo is def the standout for this movie.
ReplyDeleteSorry for the late response, still figuring out this Blogger thing. But no, i haven't watched it a second time. I plan on it, but won't see it in theaters. I'll wait for it to come out on DVD and rent it to save money. If my opinion of it changes I might update the review a little bit, or just write a new one entirely.
Delete