One Man’s Review of The Last Jedi

This is my personal, initial, and early feelings after seeing “The Last Jedi” tonight. I realize that my feelings can and will change on multiple viewings of the film and that other people are going to have different perspectives than me.

Ahch-To
(The Island Planet)

I thought the stuff on Ahch-To was really strong. Seeing Rey interact with Luke Skywalker is where this story really gets to stretch out and breathe. Rey is by far the most compelling character of this new trilogy so part of me felt that she was underserved in this film. Rian Johnson brought in so many new and wonderful characters and ideas- that I kind of lost track of the hero's journey. Also, let’s talk about Porgs. In my fan-cut of this movie, I’d take out the Porgs. 

The Chase Through Space

Despite an apparent victory over the First Order in “The Force Awakens”, the First Order now has the Resistance on the run. The First Order can now track ships through hyperspace (ala the first few episodes of Battlestar Galactica). Poe’s character really shines here and the tension between Poe and purple-haired Laura Dern, was enough to keep this interesting.

Canto Bight (The Casino Planet)

Okay, so this is where the film starts to lose me. It wasn’t just the slapstick comedy or the CJI stampedes that turned me off- It was the fact that Canto Bight is just an unneeded distraction from the other story threads. Benicio del Toro’s slicer character “DJ” was utterly pointless to me, because he doesn’t get a real character arc. Kelly Marie Tran’s character “Rose” is okay, but she’s a little preachy, isn’t she? I guess this story moves so fast that we don’t really get to focus on any one character for too long.

Crait (The Salt Planet)

The visual genius of Crait, cannot be denied, but visual-genius isn’t exactly the same as a quality storyline, is it? The last act of this film is a mystifying as the rest of it. It is beautiful and fast-paced and full of color and character, but at the same time I wish it would just slow down for a second. Two-and-a-half hours have flown by and I’m starting to get lost. What are the themes here? Who are these characters? Did Admiral Ackbar really die?  

Risks

One thing many fans didn’t like about “The Force Awakens” is that it was too “similar” to “A New Hope”. So if there is one good thing we can say about “The Last Jedi” is that it took risks. Still, I wish Rian Johnson wouldn’t have jammed-packed everything he had in his brain into this one film. I think the best thing about “The Force Awakens” was that J.J. showed some restraint. Without restraint your characters aren’t characters, they are just toys to be played with.