Star Wars: The Last Jedi Review | Eastern North Carolina Now

Is it really time for the Jedi to end?

    Star Wars: The Last Jedi is the highly anticipated sequel to 2015's The Force Awakens, the incredibly divisive beginning to the new trilogy of the Star Wars Saga. The Last Jedi is an incredibly ambitious film narratively speaking. This film sets out to do much more than other Star Wars movie has set out to do, and explore ideas not ventured in the Saga's films. The Last Jedi is much more philosophically focused than the previous installments; this contributing to a sharp contrast in tone comparatively to its predecessors. Rian Johnson, the Director of The Last Jedi, made a movie that defied expectations of what a Star Wars film could be.

    I won't discuss the plot in great depth as it risks "spoiling" something (if you care about spoilers, do not read the IMDB page for this, there is a spoiler somewhere on there), but there are some things I don't think would be an issue to discuss. Many criticized The Force Awakens for it bearing too many similarities to A New Hope. The plot line does not resemble any one particular movie in the saga, however there are many scenes that have direct callbacks to previous scenes (which is something you will find in every Star Wars movie.) At times these callbacks felt unbearably forced (no pun intended), serving merely to cater toward nostalgia while sacrificing immersion. The cheesiness of such scenes is forgivable I suppose considering the movie is about space wizards, what do you expect? Thankfully The Last Jedi lacks a Death Star 4.0 or some big super-weapon they spend the whole movie working to destroy like 4 of the 8 previous movies (I am considering The Clone Wars movie didn't happen for the same reason I am not recognizing the Star Wars Holiday Special.)



    The movie had several plot lines going at once, constantly cutting back-and-forth; which is standard for Star Wars. However, this movie crammed enough plot points for 2 movies into one; granted this is the longest Star Wars movie with a run time of 2.5 hours. I personally didn't have a problem with this because I felt the movie effectively communicated everything going on as it progressed, but I can see how a non-Star Wars nerd might find it difficult to keep up.

    A large part of The Last Jedi focuses on the nature of the Force in Star Wars; which makes me believe this movie is not for non-Star Wars fans. The way the Force is portrayed in this movie is much different than before; but if you follow Star Wars Rebels or have read some of the latest Star Wars comics/books, you will still be surprised, just not as much.

    The Last Jedi goes through great lengths to help the viewer understand all the characters, except Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie), Snoke (Andy Serkis), and BB-9E ("the Black BB-8"). It continues the story of the new characters: Kylo Ren/Ben Solo (Adam Driver), Finn (John Boyega), Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), and Rey (Daisey Ridley); while also continuing on the story of the original trilogy characters Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), and Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher.)


Star Wars: The Last Jedi starts off right where The Force Awakens ends.
    Rey's storyline starts off right where The Force Awakens left off, though I must say that I was thrown off guard. It was somewhat frustrating with what they did to the character of Luke, but it begins to make sense when you put it into context with everything else. Her story, when merged with Luke's (I'm going to avoid talking about Luke because spoilers. What I will say is you will be surprised.) is about the Jedi and the force; outside of that is her own Hero's Journey. She has a great character arc that often overshadowed the rest, that always left me wondering when the movie was going to go back to hers.

    Kylo Ren's story is just as interesting as Rey's, focusing on his conflicted nature with the Light and the Dark, as well as his desire to destroy his past, "Let the past die. Kill it if you have to" (not a spoiler, I am quoting a trailer.) The story has a duality doing on with Rey and Kylo Ren; the light and the dark. This acts as a incredibly interesting way the characters interact.


Kylo Ren and his misunderstood lightsaber
    Finn has his own journey with Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran), a Resistance maintenance worker who finds herself in a situation far from what she thought she was prepared for. At times the scenes for this plot line felt overly drawn out or outright unnecessary (particularly where they are on Canto Bight, the casino planet), however it is redeemable when you consider those scenes help further develop the character of Rose and the state of the Galaxy. The story of Rose is interesting because it she just a regular person, not from a dynasty of heroes; this grants the viewer a brand new perspective for the Star Wars Galaxy.

    The Last Jedi is the most visually impressive Star Wars films thus far. There are several mesmerizing shots in the film, they are easy to notice if you're looking. The most stunning one would be on Crait (the white planet.) The impeccable visual effects gave much more weight to the losses suffered (not a spoiler. It is a movie called Star Wars, of characters are going to die. A spoiler would be me saying ***** *** **** dies.) John Williams did another fantastic job scoring The Last Jedi. It is exactly what one would expect based on the previous installments (Rouge One did not have John Williams as the composer.) I am currently listening to the score on Spotify as I write this.

    Since the Disney acquisition of Star Wars, it was apparent that changes would happen. The animated series were made a lot less serious than before the acquisition, being mostly just a fun joking adventure with an occasional encounter with an inquisitor here and there. When the movies started releasing, it had much more comic relief than the original or prequel trilogy had (and that's including the existence of Jar Jar Binks.) The Last Jedi unfortunately suffers from the same problem, only it got worse. The movie will embark on a serious discussion only to have some gag of a porg doing something cute, then it go back to it again. I understand that Star Wars is a family franchise, and you have to have the comic relief to keep children entertained or something like that, but this movie goes overboard when taking into account the overall tone of the movie. This is the largest problem I have with this movie. I am not saying kill all the porgs and BB-8, I love the porg creatures, and BB-8 is my favorite Star Wars character; I just think the movie should have scaled back on the frequency of jokes (BB-8 can keep doing his/her thing, BB-8 can do no wrong.)


First Order AT-AT Walkers as the Battle of Crait begins.
    I am quite conflicted with the movie, thematically speaking; however I feel it is ultimately important to wait until the final installment of the trilogy to fully understand the story. The movie is about characters taking charge in their own destiny; as The Last Jedi focuses on the choices characters make to define them, not where they come from. I am interested in where they will go from here with the nature of the force based on where The Last Jedi left off. I would personally recommend this movie to people who like Star Wars. I would not recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen any of the previous films as I do not see how this movie could make any sense.

    So what do I think of the movie overall? Initially after seeing it at the opening premiere, I had no clue what to make of it. I had incredibly mixed feelings about the movie, but the more I think, the more I like it. Of course, I am total Star Wars nerd, so there's that (granted I never really liked Rouge One.)