*SPOILERS* Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Well, here we are. Probably the most anticipated movie of the year (though admittedly that seems to have become the case with every film in the franchise), which many are calling the best addition to the Saga since The Empire Strikes Back (1980). I watched in all its 152 minutes of magnificence and I've got a lot to say about it.
Firstly, my only major issue with the film comes from the structure and pacing. It suffers from Rogue One syndrome, in that the first half to two-thirds of the film play out very strangely and very slowly. We follow Leia, Finn, Poe and the Resistance troops we saw in The Force Awakens in a ship being tracked through lightspeed by Star Destroyers (the impossibility of which is brought up and, to my knowledge, not explained), and follow Rey and Luke in their storyline. Particularly when characters split up and we have several story threads happening at once, it gets annoying to keep cutting between scenes where, frankly, not that much actually happens, until about the halfway point. I never really found myself invested in Finn, Rose and BB8's mission, that just felt a little close to the gang boarding the Death Star in Episode IV. There are so many stories moving along slowly, but the payoff is that we get pretty much a full hour of climactic battles and discoveries. I think Jenny Nicholson explains the pacing better than I ever could, so I'd advise anyone interested in that to give her video a watch:
But aside from that, this was pretty great. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't as much of an Empire rip-off as the trailers made it look, but it definitely borrows lots of elements like the Empire's AT-AT siege on the Hoth Base and the young Jedi getting training from the only other Jedi in the galaxy.
My highlight was definitely the shot where we saw Rey and Kylo Ren fighting side by side against Snoke's Guards. The entire Throne Room scene was brilliant, with just the right amount of tension keeping everyone on the edge of their seat (but did we really think Kylo Ren was ever going to kill Rey?). The two fighting together was a kind of wish fulfilment. After the original trilogy's Emperor constantly wanted Luke to join the Dark Side, it was interesting to see what it would look like for the antagonist and protagonist to fight together, no matter which side they were on. It also works with the previous trilogies (i.e Episodes 4-6 were about a Jedi journeying to the Light side of the force, Episodes 1-3 were about a Jedi descending to the Dark side, and now with Episodes 7-9 it looks like we'll be seeing a new kind of Jedi between the light and dark, which is much more nuanced and complex than the basic good vs evil storyline).
While The Force Awakens felt perhaps a little too similar to the original trilogy, the latest episode is very different to what we're used to in Star Wars. Even the inclusion of flashbacks and the awesome scene where Holdo pilots the rebel ship at lightspeed towards the Star Destroyer in a last bid to do all she can for the Rebellion before dying onboard the ship anyway, feel very unlike something you'd see in a Star Wars movie. And that's not necessarily bad, of course you have to change things or fans will get bored (don't try to deny it, even the most hardcore fans won't be able to keep track of the ever-growing canon if it's all the same), particularly with two more anthology films, five more episodes planned and reportedly a live-action streaming series. The stylistic choices I thought worked surprisingly well, particularly the music cutting out on Holdo's final attack which really gave the scene a lot of weight and meaning.
Now, on characters, I overall liked what this instalment did with them, with each person being challenged in a new way and really changing the way we see them. After watching it, I understand even more why Han Solo was killed off in the previous movie, because I can't see any way he could fit in with any of the storylines in this. I found Holdo's character interesting, but I'm not sure quite what the point was of her hiding her and Leia's plan from Poe and the others. I also liked Rose, particularly her introduction making her relatable to star wars fanatics seeing their heroes, but I felt like the love story between her and Finn was really forced, with practically no build up. They must have some deleted scenes somewhere, because there was no indication the whole movie that they were in love at all until she randomly kisses him after (possibly but honestly nobody permanently stops being in these films) sacrifices herself for him. I felt that, again R2D2 and C3PO were wasted and not really necessary (and the only relevance they have had to the series so far is R2 holding part of a map to Luke in the previous film), but I'm sure their inclusion at this point is just for fan service and so we can still keep the pub quiz question "Which characters have been in every Star Wars film".
I was really hoping that Leia would finally be able to use the force a little bit, particularly after the dialogue from the original trilogy in The Force Awakens trailer reminded us that Luke's sister has it, and this did not disappoint. She definitely used the force a lot more than I expected, even if her flying through space looked a little...strange...but I was surprised that nobody really brought it up again (I understand that everybody knows that her father was one of the most powerful Jedi in history, but she'd never shown any sign of having the force before and you'd just think that that would be noteworthy). I was also surprised that Leia wasn't written out in this film (I presumed her death would be when she was sucked out in space because that would have been pretty easy to CG into the film if Leia originally survived that in the script) but Leia made it to the very end of the movie, which makes me wonder quite how she will leave the story, though all I can imagine they can do at this point is have her die between movies or in an explosion offscreen in Episode IX, given that they have confirmed they will not use her image to recreate Fisher's performance as with characters in Rogue One.
All in all, this was pretty good. Not quite as good as the previous Episode, but the more time I spend thinking about it, the more I like it. I does a great job at expanding the universe and the characters even if the pacing and structure is a little off. The ending with only a few rebels left really sets up the final chapter of the saga well, and the cliffhanger showing a young boy on Canto Bight has the force (making it a little coincidental that Finn and Rose met him), which gives me hope that the next film will have a focus on a new generation of force users, and will hopefully elaborate on the Knights of Ren and where they are now (unless they were the now-dead Snoke's guards or Phasma, which would be a bit anticlimactic). I can't wait for this trilogy's conclusion in 2019
Firstly, my only major issue with the film comes from the structure and pacing. It suffers from Rogue One syndrome, in that the first half to two-thirds of the film play out very strangely and very slowly. We follow Leia, Finn, Poe and the Resistance troops we saw in The Force Awakens in a ship being tracked through lightspeed by Star Destroyers (the impossibility of which is brought up and, to my knowledge, not explained), and follow Rey and Luke in their storyline. Particularly when characters split up and we have several story threads happening at once, it gets annoying to keep cutting between scenes where, frankly, not that much actually happens, until about the halfway point. I never really found myself invested in Finn, Rose and BB8's mission, that just felt a little close to the gang boarding the Death Star in Episode IV. There are so many stories moving along slowly, but the payoff is that we get pretty much a full hour of climactic battles and discoveries. I think Jenny Nicholson explains the pacing better than I ever could, so I'd advise anyone interested in that to give her video a watch:
My highlight was definitely the shot where we saw Rey and Kylo Ren fighting side by side against Snoke's Guards. The entire Throne Room scene was brilliant, with just the right amount of tension keeping everyone on the edge of their seat (but did we really think Kylo Ren was ever going to kill Rey?). The two fighting together was a kind of wish fulfilment. After the original trilogy's Emperor constantly wanted Luke to join the Dark Side, it was interesting to see what it would look like for the antagonist and protagonist to fight together, no matter which side they were on. It also works with the previous trilogies (i.e Episodes 4-6 were about a Jedi journeying to the Light side of the force, Episodes 1-3 were about a Jedi descending to the Dark side, and now with Episodes 7-9 it looks like we'll be seeing a new kind of Jedi between the light and dark, which is much more nuanced and complex than the basic good vs evil storyline).
While The Force Awakens felt perhaps a little too similar to the original trilogy, the latest episode is very different to what we're used to in Star Wars. Even the inclusion of flashbacks and the awesome scene where Holdo pilots the rebel ship at lightspeed towards the Star Destroyer in a last bid to do all she can for the Rebellion before dying onboard the ship anyway, feel very unlike something you'd see in a Star Wars movie. And that's not necessarily bad, of course you have to change things or fans will get bored (don't try to deny it, even the most hardcore fans won't be able to keep track of the ever-growing canon if it's all the same), particularly with two more anthology films, five more episodes planned and reportedly a live-action streaming series. The stylistic choices I thought worked surprisingly well, particularly the music cutting out on Holdo's final attack which really gave the scene a lot of weight and meaning.
Now, on characters, I overall liked what this instalment did with them, with each person being challenged in a new way and really changing the way we see them. After watching it, I understand even more why Han Solo was killed off in the previous movie, because I can't see any way he could fit in with any of the storylines in this. I found Holdo's character interesting, but I'm not sure quite what the point was of her hiding her and Leia's plan from Poe and the others. I also liked Rose, particularly her introduction making her relatable to star wars fanatics seeing their heroes, but I felt like the love story between her and Finn was really forced, with practically no build up. They must have some deleted scenes somewhere, because there was no indication the whole movie that they were in love at all until she randomly kisses him after (possibly but honestly nobody permanently stops being in these films) sacrifices herself for him. I felt that, again R2D2 and C3PO were wasted and not really necessary (and the only relevance they have had to the series so far is R2 holding part of a map to Luke in the previous film), but I'm sure their inclusion at this point is just for fan service and so we can still keep the pub quiz question "Which characters have been in every Star Wars film".
I was really hoping that Leia would finally be able to use the force a little bit, particularly after the dialogue from the original trilogy in The Force Awakens trailer reminded us that Luke's sister has it, and this did not disappoint. She definitely used the force a lot more than I expected, even if her flying through space looked a little...strange...but I was surprised that nobody really brought it up again (I understand that everybody knows that her father was one of the most powerful Jedi in history, but she'd never shown any sign of having the force before and you'd just think that that would be noteworthy). I was also surprised that Leia wasn't written out in this film (I presumed her death would be when she was sucked out in space because that would have been pretty easy to CG into the film if Leia originally survived that in the script) but Leia made it to the very end of the movie, which makes me wonder quite how she will leave the story, though all I can imagine they can do at this point is have her die between movies or in an explosion offscreen in Episode IX, given that they have confirmed they will not use her image to recreate Fisher's performance as with characters in Rogue One.
All in all, this was pretty good. Not quite as good as the previous Episode, but the more time I spend thinking about it, the more I like it. I does a great job at expanding the universe and the characters even if the pacing and structure is a little off. The ending with only a few rebels left really sets up the final chapter of the saga well, and the cliffhanger showing a young boy on Canto Bight has the force (making it a little coincidental that Finn and Rose met him), which gives me hope that the next film will have a focus on a new generation of force users, and will hopefully elaborate on the Knights of Ren and where they are now (unless they were the now-dead Snoke's guards or Phasma, which would be a bit anticlimactic). I can't wait for this trilogy's conclusion in 2019
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