The most anticipated film of 2017 has finally arrived after much speculation and build up hype, (No I'm not talking about Justice League)admist a year full of ups and downs quality wise. While there's been a few blockbusters this year that met and surpassed expectations both in critical and financial terms such as
Beauty And The Beast, Wonder Woman, Spiderman Homecoming, Stephen Kings IT, Thor Ragnarock, and
Coco. While those films went into surprising audiences with their quality and overall performances, none had the anticipation and the hype that came with
The Last Jedi, the eighth installment in the popular
Star Wars franchise now owned by Disney, and the second installment in the newer trilogy of film's that began with JJ Abrams 2015 smash hit
The Force Awakens. Exactly two years later, the story for the new era of film's continue with Rian Johnson now taking the directors chair from Abrams as well as writing duties. The storyline picks up directly after the ending of the first movie with Rey now seeking the help of a reluctant Luke Skywalker to show her the ways of the force by helping to develop her newly discovered abilities while the Resistance led by General Leia Organa prepares to do battle with the First Order. The trailers and marketing prior to the film's release promised a much darker and more intense story that would answer questions regarding Reys background, the conflict between Luke Skywalker and Kylo Ren, and where did Snoke come from. Having seen the new
Star Wars film, one can say that the film not only further explores its characters and questions behind their backgrounds and story, but the movie as a whole proves to live up to the expectation of being the best
Star Wars film made since
The Empire Strikes Back.
The Last Jedi not only meets the quality of its predecessor head on, but largely improves upon the new story set up by Abrams with
The Force Awakens. With
The Last Jedi, everything is bigger in terms of the scope of the story to the characters being more fleshed out and developed, making the audience genuinely care about them even more than they did before.
The Last Jedi is first and foremost Rey and Kylo Rens story as the film picks up from where these two last left each other after their big lightsaber fight at the climax of the first movie. Although the story includes Luke Skywalker, Finn, Leia, and Poes characters journey, the heart of the film is Rey and Kylo struggling to grasp their powers as well as figure out their place in the scope of things. Daisy Ridley delivers a strong performance as Rey with her scenes with Luke played masterfully by Mark Hamill being among some of the finest moments in the film. Hamill gives a genuinely gripping performance as an older Luke Skywalker, whose experienced loss by witnessing Ben aka Kylo turn to the dark side, leading to his refusal to train Rey at first but finally agrees to. Hamills performance is among the strongest in the film and one that warrants a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination as the audience loves every minute that he's on the screen then anticipates his return. With his return, Mark Hamill takes the opportunity of a lifetime and gives his all with the part. Adam Driver does a strong job playing Ren, effectively portraying the conflict his character feels in regards to being drawn back to the light while becoming the Sith Lord he desires to become like his grandfather Darth Vader. Ren is more effective of an antagonist in this movie and has nice moments where he battles the light and darkness, but it can also be said that as hard as Drivers character tries, he doesn't measure up to the awesomeness of Vader being the villain in the original trilogy (His internal struggle though is fast more convincing than anything Hayden Christensen gave us in the Prequel trilogy). Perhaps his character isn't meant to be as frightening and more of a personal struggle as he's caught in the fight between good and evil internally. One does wish however that he kept his mask on longer as it made his character more intriguing and menacing in
The Force Awakens. John Boyega returns as Finn, delivering another charismatic performance as well as developing a unique type of relationship with Rose played by Kelly Marie Tran. Benicio Del Toro and Laura Dern shine in small supporting roles, making welcoming additions to the cast with Del Toro playing a smuggler named DJ and Dern playing Vice Admiral Holdo. Oscar Isaac shines once again as Poe with a bigger role this time while still bringing the charm and humor his character possessed in the previous film. Carrie Fisher shines as General Leia Organa, delivering her final film performance while making it an emotional experience for the fans (The scene where she reunites with Luke is a powerful one that's both heartwarming and touching). In terms of acting and directing, everyone brings their A game to the film with Mark Hamill giving the best performance, and Rian Johnson directing the movie with a similar kind of energy that JJ Abrams had with directing
The Force Awakens, giving the film twists and turns throughout its story.
As far as the film's technical achievements go,
The Last Jedi is a stunning film to behold visually, which has become the standard for
Star Wars films to showcase terrific special effects. The new weapons used in the film are effective thanks to the visual outlook of them as well as the film's top notch Cinematography to mix with the art-set decoration. One advantage that the newer
Star Wars films have over the prequels, is the fact that they look like true continuations of the world established in the original trilogy.
The Last Jedi not only feels right at home in that regard, but is breathtaking to see on the big screen, particularly its space battles. Both Abrams and Johnson direct their films from the perspective of being fans themselves and asking the question of what they would like to see on the screen while making the characters appear to be larger than life. Like
The Force Awakens, audiences become fully invested in the story of
The Last Jedi and find themselves fully caring about the characters while dreading that the audience has to wait two years to see the next film that continues from where
The Last Jedi ends in epic fashion.
The Last Jedi continues to prove that Disney is extremely skillful at crafting the newer stories while providing a great deal of fan service.
The Last Jedi is both a technological breakthrough as well as an extremely worthy entry in the new saga of film's. Watching
The Last Jedi, one can tell that great care was taken in regards to making the film both exciting and powerful for fans. Was the movie perfect? No, there's still questions left to be answered by future installments and some of the revelations fell a tad short of their true potential (Rey's parents revelation, unanswered questions regarding Snokes past, newer and minor characters being introduced but not fully fleshed out such as Laura Dern and Benecio Del Toro characters (Missed a really good opportunity to bring back Billy Dee Williams in this sequel), Captain Phasma having a cool sequence with Finn but still largely underdeveloped as a character), questionable writing such as Leia's big Mary Poppins moment that makes sense when the audience thinks about it but is executed sloppily, and Luke's first dialogue exchange with Rey is a slight missed opportunity. Despite the films minor faults, it soars above every
Star Wars prequel,
The Force Awakens which was awesome, and even
Return Of The Jedi. What will probably end up being the most divisive installment in the series outside of the prequels takes the most risks with its characters and deserves huge credit for pulling off its risks and further advancing the story. With the way Disney has set up the newer film's, the
Star Wars universe will continue on past the Skywalker family arc as both Rey and Ren are strong enough characters to carry the storyline as the old one fades. Whereas
The Force Awakens played it extremely safe by delivering a scenario very similar to
A New Hope, The Last Jedi takes the characters and the story into newer territory while sharing only limited parallels to
The Empire Strikes back such as Luke training Rey (The reverse of Yoda training Luke), and
Return Of The Jedi (With Snoke trying to lure Rey and Ren to the dark side in Emperor Palpatine fashion).
The Last Jedi dares to take new risks for the franchise while honoring the past. With those risks, not every
Star Wars fan will necessarily agree with the approach Rian Johnson took to the story but in the end,
The Last Jedi largely satisfies as being a worthy successor to
The Force Awakens that'll someday go down as being one of the best installments in the series.
The Last Jedi is not only one of the best movies of the year but a terrific space adventure as well as being one of the most satisfying
Star Wars films ever made (in my humble opinion, it's the best one since
The Empire Strikes Back). The Last Jedi dazzles audiences from start to finish while opening up the universe to a new generation of fans.
The Last Jedi serves as being a bridge between the past and more exciting things yet to come with Episode 9. Here's hoping that JJ Abrams can continue to build off what Rian Johnson established and bring this newer trilogy to a strong and powerful conclusion.
The Last Jedi is a must see.
Final Verdict: SEE IT
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