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"I only know one truth, it's time for the Jedi to end".
Here’s my review of ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’. Before I go any further with this review, I’d like to say that I don’t agree with all the fans who are stating that this entry in the Star Wars franchise is ‘too different’. You have to remember that these are the same people who criticised ‘The Force Awakens’ for being ‘too similar’ to other entries, so you just can’t win.
As I mentioned in a previous status, I left the cinema with incredibly mixed feelings about ‘The Last Jedi’ so I’m going to start with what I did like about the film and what did work for me, and then I will move on to the negatives.
Firstly, I felt the overall acting in this movie was superb. The themes of brokenness and uncertainty are very much highlighted in this movie and a large number of the characters experience these. Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker is great in this movie and without giving anything away, you can absolutely see on his face how broken and done he is in general, based on some key events which happened in the past and his character is very deeply troubled in this movie which creates a real sense of intrigue. Likewise, Carrie Fisher also shines in her final performance as the favourite, Leia Organa. Her warmth and extremely capable ability to lead shine through and Carrie’s presence on screen is as always very powerful.
For me personally though, the standout actor of this movie for me was Adam Driver as Kylo Ren. Kylo Ren is by far one of my favourite characters in the Star Wars Universe, because there are so many different sides to his character which constantly keeps you guessing as to his outcome and his overall story arc is very well structured. In this instalment particularly, Kylo is very much torn between living up to Darth Vadar’s legacy and sticking with the dark side and veering towards the light, when influenced by certain characters. As mentioned above with the case of Luke Skywalker, Kylo is very troubled in this instalment and is tormented by his instability.
As is the case with all Star Wars movies, this instalment is certainly exciting for the most part so you definitely can’t take that away from it. When the action gets going, it really does get going and we as the audience are treated to some spectacular dogfights and some epic lightsaber clashes.
So now on to the aspects of this movie which just didn’t sit well with me. My main issue with this movie and I’m sure I’m not alone here, is that there are far too many unsatisfying and frankly shameful moments in certain characters’ storylines which again I can’t go into in much detail, but what I’m getting at here is that things which have been built up to us as the audience for quite some time now, amount to absolutely nothing which really just doesnt make any sense when you put them into context and leaves you feeling very let down. I also wasn’t a fan at all of how certain conclusions are reached in this movie. One in particular comes across as very lazy writing and quite annoyed me.
Additionally to this, there are still too many unanswered questions which really should have been addressed in this movie and not enough content is tied together to give us the information we deserve. This again feels like a bit of a slap in the face to fans, particularly because as mentioned above, these questions which we have are ones which have been teased constantly.
Another issue with this movie for me personally, is the humour. So there are some scenes which raised a very slight chuckle from the audience but overall, the humour just didn’t hit home for me at all. I get that Disney has taken over the Star Wars franchise and so we should expect to see some absurdities from these final films in the saga but when one of the key characters starts actually milking an alien, it’s just ludicrous and doesn’t fit into the movie at all.
Again I can’t explain this in as much detail as I might like to, but there are also several scenes in this movie which once concluded, feel incredibly pointless and again, amount to nothing.
So overall, yes there are things to be found in ‘The Last Jedi’ which are enjoyable and exciting, but there are also far too many issues which are too apparent to make this entry reach the bar which the other movies have set in the saga.
6.5/10