Star Wars: The Last Jedi (SPOILER FREE)

Okay no movie is without sin and definitely not ones in the Star Wars universe so I've had my power nap, mulled this shit over and now it's time to bash this one out and await the cascade of crap from all of my friends and family.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is directed by Rian Johnson and stars Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaacs, John Boyega, Carrie Fisher (le cry) and Mark Hamill and is the continuation of Episode 7. I've promised to make this spoiler free, as all my reviews always are, so unfortunately that is all I can say about the plot because as a lot of you expected there is much to spoil here. Ground will be trodden on lightly for the next 500ish words. So what about my opinion then? It was good. There are things in this movie I loved, things I thought were okay and other stuff that made me scream at the screen because of how categorically stupid they are. And almost everything I hated does unfortunately come from one element of the film, the narrative.

Let's get down to this then and kick off as always with the good. The direction here is near flawless. Rian Johnson was a complete unknown to me before this and I did have to go back and revisit his work in preparation for The Last Jedi but for me I didn't hold some of his projects like Looper in the same esteem as other film reviewers have done. But the work he does here is excellent. Rian Johnson effortlessly makes this film disctint from the rest of the Star Wars franchise whilst also simultaneously not letting us forget that we're 8 movies in at this point. There are entire sequences and shots where the director and the cinematography team come together in perfect harmony like never before seen in cinema. At moments I was literally a gasp. You ask my friends sitting either side of me in the auditorium, visually this movie blew me away unlike ever before and I was literally punching my best friend in the seat next to me out of pure jubilation of the masterpiece in front of me. And I'm very sorry if aforementioned friend has woken up a little bit bruised and worse for wear this morning because of it. Sorry. I get now why Disney and Kathleen Kennedy (Star Wars version of Kevin Feige) green lit a new trilogy post Episode 9 to be overseen by Rian Johnson. This guy is underused brilliance and bravo to him. So much of this movie is future screensaver material.

For the most part, everyone's character arc's are wonderful. The first two thirds of the movie with Luke and Rey on the latters secluded island creates some wonderful character moments and you really see why Luke Skywalker is in the headspace he's in and why he chose to run away. He's a world weary man but equally in some expertly crafted scenes he really does shine through as the farm boy from Tatoonie we grew to love all those years ago. This is the best Mark Hamill has been in a Star Wars movie. Carrie Fisher has some wonderfully powerful moments here considering her untimely demise late last year and it does make her scenes quite difficult to watch for those who grew up with her being such a massive figure in their lives (myself included). Supreme Leader Snoke is badass here and I'm so grateful because I wasn't a massive fan on his chair hologram self from the last movie. From scene 1 all my fears about his presence as a villain were wiped out. Domhall Gleesons character of Hux has a lot more to do here as does Poe Dameron and I'm so very grateful for this again as those two actors are some of my favourites working right now. And Adam Driver is as perfect as the tormented Kylo Ren/Ben Solo as ever. You are expertly sold his character arc and it is one of my favourites.

The story also does a really good job at expanding the universe and mythos of the Star Wars universe and that's always something I like to see. There's always fresh planets, vehicles and aliens in every one of these movies and that's what makes these refreshing every time. It's an ever changing universe and Hants off to a brilliant production team for fantastic sets, costumes, prosthetics and visual effects as always. I grew up admiring your work and concept arts as a child and that legacy of beautiful work is thankfully continued.

There are a lot of big reveals in this movie and I've got to say that every one left me speechless all for different reasons. However I will come back and mention these later on. 

So now unfortunately, it's on to the negatives. 

This is a long movie, and an unnecessarily long one at that. And at times from a narrative point of view it does feel very messy. For the first 2 acts of this movie we have three distinct groups and story lines for our heroes alone in Rey and Luke, Leia and Poe and Finn and a new character we're introduced to in this movie. That's three distinct plots with their own conflicts and tensions before we've even scratched the surface of what the First Order is up to. So what ends up happening is for a period of 45 minutes or longer you're being bounced around like you're inside a pinball machine going from one subplot to another and for one in particular you just categorically do not care what's going on. It is physically too far away from the main action and character developments for you to care. It's way too cut off and to my highest annoyance there comes a point whereby you realise that there was almost zero point in you sitting through this ridiculous sub plot. This movie could have been at least 30 minutes shorter without it and nothing would've changed. With the recent Justice League in mind I feel like that certain segment needed a self ricotious studio exec to come at it with some scissors.

Now as I said I'm coming back to the big reveals as parts of them I found, a tad frustrating. Now don't worry this is remaining spoiler free but what I'm talking about is on a couple of these big moments almost immediately after something else happens and in my mind it feels like they take these characters two steps forward, one step back, with every reveal. I'm not going to rip into this too much however because in two years time I feel like a lot of this will make a lot more sense with Episode 9. I read how critics weren't too keen on Empire Strikes Back and the the reveals in that movie until later down the road as taken in a vacuum, the do feel like they need further exploration, as they do here. So with this point it's more of just an FYI, heads up to be ear marked and returned to for when I come to talk about Episode 9. I will say for certain however that not one reveal disappointed me in the slightest and I was punching the air, a gasp in shock and shocked to my very core with some of them. You're in for a treat and a lot of answers. And also a lot more questions to boot. Sorry but this is a Star Wars movie.

And in light of that last comment I do movie on to my next grip and it's a small one that only ever really rears its head twice. And yes I know people are going to say "oh you're picking at straws if it's only there twice" and well to that I say "Fuck you. I saw that it's something that was wrong and so I'm gonna talk about it." The movie has two scenes where two characters lay out some quite heavy and clunky exposition. It feels like in these two moments Rian Johnson handed a prequels era George Lucas the script and told him he could write the monologues because the way in which these segments are written are very much in your face explainations of character emotions and motivations, a la prequels era George Lucas. I did find myself pulled out of the movie at these points and that's why I have to mention it because it felt like such a detraction away from what is otherwise excellent dialogue. Old habits die hard for Lucasfilm I see. 

And my final point is this. Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a funny movie. Sometimes the humour lands really well and other times not so much. I feel like at points this movie gets a little bit of Thor Ragnorok syndrome. See in that movie there are points in which big, emotional moments which have been built up to over long periods of time are undermined by a poorly timed joke or action that is played for laughs (see Korg's comments toward the end of Ragnorok). There was one moment that had the biggest build up of them all that for me was really undercut by a joke. But I will be fair and say that it did work for a lot of the people around me. Humour is a highly subjective topic and you're either going to love or hate the scene in question. 

So to sum up this movie is probably one of the best directed, well made and ORIGINAL Star Wars movies ever (yes it doesn't just retell Empire Strikes Back). There are some wonderful, character driven moments and people who perhaps didn't get as much time to shine in The Force Awakens get more of the spotlight here. The set pieces are stunning and the production values are as good as it's ever been. And when the big reveals come, boy do they come and they feel well earned to boot. However The Last Jedi does suffer from its extended runtime and an irritatingly desposable sub plot in the second act that does slow down the pace and detracts away from the stakes at hand. The humour does work in places, although not everywhere when at times it feels like big moments are played for laughs where they shouldn't be. Lucas-esq exposition heavy dialogue does rear its head from time to time although it never verges into full prequel territory. All in all I can't detract from saying that I had a lot of fun here. For the most part it is a well made movie but it perhaps does not deserve quite as high a Rotten Tomatoes score as it is currently sitting on. I'm more than sufficiently intrigued about where they take it from here and now, well, it's back over to you JJ Abrams to see us home in 2 years time (le cry) with Episode 9.

7/10