#thelastjediemoviereview

[fatfreddysreviews]

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

This is the movie that Star Wars: The Force Awakens should have been, not what it ended up being, almost a copy and paste of A New Hope. Although there is a lot happening across the movie with characters spread out all over the place, I felt that Rian Johnson did a good job of keeping all the disparate plots within the overarching storyline, humming along and it all made sense.

I found it very disappointing that Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) only got a couple of minutes of screen time in the Force Awakens, so it was great to see him one of the main characters in this movie. A significant part of the plot centres around Luke and his failure to train Kylo Ren in the ways of the Jedi. His failure and the virtual eradication of the Jedi weighs heavily on his weary shoulders, much like it did for his mentor, Obi Wan Kenobi. There are similarities between the two, as they both ended up living as hermits shunning interactions with others. And it’s in this state of mind that he meets Rey, who clearly has The Force running strongly in her but he’s reluctant to get involved with her and train her as a Jedi.

In some ways, nothing changes in the Star Wars world, as the Resistance is still being hounded by the First Order and the Supreme Leader (unsurprisingly played by Andy Serkis) and his evil plans. You’d think Princess Leah (the late and great Carrie Fisher) would be sick and tired of being persecuted across the galaxies but she keeps going and drawing rebels to her cause. Leah is also weary from the years of struggle and the loss of her husband and son, Kylo Ren.

Which leads me on to Mr Kylo, who I was very critical of in my review last year but who I think has redeemed himself somewhat in this version. He’s still a child in a man’s body, one who has some pretty amazing powers. I think he reflects his conflict between good and evil much better this time and you believe that at some point, through his relationship with Rey, he might come back to the good side, but he’s too far gone and not even the prospect of being with the beautiful Rey will make him deviate from his path. It’s an interesting relationship, it’s not clear to me whether there is a romantic connection (I would say there is) or whether it’s the connection from The Force, but this is a key component of the story line and it works very well, there is certainly chemistry there or something.

Daisy Ridley gets better and more comfortable in her role and does a great job in interpreting the intrepid, morally strong and feisty Rey. She’s certainly growing in her role and you could read from the way the story line is moving ahead, she will be the main protagonist being the one remaining person that can harness The Force, although she isn’t officially a Jedi.

The shift from the original cast to the new and younger one will continue focusing on the very charismatic John Boyega, who also has an important role in this movie and he gets a lot of the more humorous lines. He gets to do a lot of the action scenes after he wakes up from what I assume was a coma at the end of the previous film. He develops an unlikely friendship and partnership with Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran), who’s a bit of a techno-geek, who’s in awe of Finn, as he’s seen as a hero of the resistance. He almost gets killed off a few times in this version, so hopefully he doesn’t get himself in these situations too much in the future.

I really enjoyed this movie, I think it was exactly what the franchise needed after Episodes 1 to 3 and The Force Awakens (although I know a lot of people liked it, I found it unoriginal and preferred Rogue One), it had a good, solid plot with good acting, good characters and lots of really good action and special effects. My one criticism and it’s probably quite pedantic, is the franchise’s need to have “lovable’ creatures involved. We first saw this with the Ewoks, then the reprehensible Jar Jar and now we have Porgs. Yes, they’re cute but what do they add to the story? Having said that, my 10-year-old was quite drawn to them and thought they were so cute, so perhaps it’s me who’s out of touch with the thinking behind these creatures.

Genre: Action/Adventure/Fantasy

Watchability factor: 4/5 – I would definitely watch this movie again and probably should, as there are a number of things happening that I may need to watch again to fully understand.

Outstanding performance: I don’t think there’s one particular one that stands out, there are many very good ones that bring the whole movie together/

That’s all folks.