The hype of the year has come to our theatres and as the resident fanboy of all things Star Wars related, what have I encountered during my time with the latest in the franchise, Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
As always the opening credits never get old, the crawling credit that details the small bits and pieces of the last movie while setting up the tone for the next has always been a fan favourite as it had mine, plus the iconic theme makes it all the more epic. And this time we start the movie with the Rebels being on the run.
The new Disney Star Wars had started out shaky with many complaining on how The Force Awakens is a reskinned A New Hope, and many are hoping that The Last Jedi would not become The Empire Strikes Back. I can happily tell you it’s not The Empire Strikes Back, but rather its half The Return of the Jedi. But before I get into that, let’s take a look at what’s cool and what’s not in this new instalment.
The Good
Ah, lasers, lasers everywhere…
The space battles of Star Wars is a recipe that can’t be changed, and Rian Johnson has really added some modern flair to it with scenes transitioning from a suspenseful encounter to blurred mess in space within a blink of an eye. The interplay between Star Destroyers meeting with the titular X-wings is something a Star Wars fan would not want to miss.
The humour is generally well accepted, and I felt like it is prevalent here as well, as Mark Hamill aka Luke Skywalker makes his long years in the industry shows through his wit and demeanour, and that Luke Skywalker flair hasn’t changed much. Carrie Fisher is also glorious here as she puts out the much needed last performance as Princess Leia, and the sendoff was rather touching.
The Bad
The lightsaber battles are usually one of the penultimate moments in Star Wars, sure some were overdrawn and lengthy but they don’t call this genre a space opera without the flair of an epic battle between good and evil. The Last Jedi presents with us a scuffle worthy of Jedi-in-training back in Attack Of The Clones a run for their money. The action is messy, and the one cool moment came rather late. If anything, we need more epic lightsaber fights.
The Ugly
During the movie hype season, the trailers showed promise that we might finally get answers to the gaping holes that were The Force Awakens, instead, we are left with the same shoddy job DBKL does to our potholes, that is to largely ignore them. Supreme Leader Snoke’s origin can be considered as good as gone by the way the movie went, as well as any thoughts on Rey’s parents, which thanks to Kylo Ren’s dubious explanation makes anything that has substance null and void.
The biggest crime sadly comes from Luke Skywalker who was supposed to be Rey’s mentor but now he is a better conman than Lando Calrissian. I genuinely feel sorry for Rey, and at least the pseudo lessons were free.
Conclusion
Look, at the end of the day it is Star Wars, it is going to do well just by existing, but if this is the direction that Star Wars movies are going, then we can say goodbye to a legend on the silver screen. But all is not lost, as with each iteration, we can see more improvements being made, and we hope that next years Han Solo spin-off will provide another saving grace, the way Rogue One did for us.