Star Wars: The Last Jedi

My oldest son, as well as myself of course, wanted to watch this movie already before Christmas when it went up Geneva but it was pretty much sold out (unless you wanted to sit at the very edge of the theatre). I manage to book tickets for yesterday though so…here’s my ramblings about the movie. As usual with these kind of movies, where there is a large following of fans, there is also many dissenting voices. Some people apparently are going as far as to want this movie to be undone. Well, my take on that is that these people need to grow up or let go or both. Luke is no longer a young farm boy running around saving the universe. The Star Wars universe and its characters are evolving and that is the way it should be and the way it is. Time for the next generation to pick up the torch. Both me and my son really liked this movie. After the abysmal episodes I to III (Jar Jar Binks still haunts me in my dreams) I have really enjoyed the Star Wars movies. I quite liked The Force Awakens but it is true that it felt a bit like a rehash of A New Hope. Not only does this one not feel like it is reusing old material (too much) but it also feels like it is opening a new chapter in the Star Wars universe. The FX is as good as you have the right to expect from a Star Wars movie. The story is fresh and well developed. It will not win any Oscars of course but I liked it. It makes things evolve while at the same time giving enough room for action and a wee bit of humor. The characters are almost all good and well played. I am looking forward to seeing more of most of them, especially, Rey and Poe. I’m not 100% convinced about Finn and Rose but I can live with them. Kylo Ren do not yet fill up the shoes of Darth Vader but he is showing promise. Contrary to Snoke I do feel he should put on a mask though. The two characters I did not really like was General Hux and DJ. The first one was just incompetent. I’m not sure if he was supposed to be a bit of comical relief or not but, as far as I am concerned, we can do without him. DJ, well I guess he was supposed to not be liked so he did a good job of that but these kinds of assholes just frustrate me to no end. We never saw him actually meet his demise in this movie so if he is brought back I hope it will be for the sole purpose of rectifying that oversight…as violently and painfully as possible. Of course, we saw a few new ships as well and as usual with the Empire bigger is better…or maybe not. Not sure what to say about these new designs. At least they did not look like a enlarged (except for the bridge) Star Destroyer like Darth Vader’s Super Star Destroyer. One thing that really bugged me in the first battle though was the rebels’ so called “bombers”. What kind of bloody moron designed those? They were just so wrong in so many ways. The design itself was just silly looking. They were slower than a flee on a patch of tar. Seriously, a space bomber that crawls along? Actually, why make a “bomber” in space at all? That brings us to the biggest gripe of them all with this ludicrous design…dropping bombs vertically? In space? How the fuck do they fall? Sure they looked somewhat cool when they dropped their bombs…if your knowledge of physics is on the level of your average politician (and obviously a few Hollywood employees as well). Anyway, on the whole me and my son had two and a half hours of great fun watching The Last Jedi. I hope the next movie expands on the threads this one started. I have to say that I was a bit sorry about the feeble state of the resistance at the end, so I do hope the next writer will not let this drag on. One way to ruin Star Wars for me would be to turn Star Wars into some Battlestar Galactica variant with resistance survivors on constant run from the empire. Now it is time for the resistance to strike back, and for Rey to evolve her Jedi powers.

There is so much to love about _The Last Jedi_. I was very entertained watching this 8th _Star Wars_ saga film, I'll see it again, there's some truly beautiful scenes, all that jazz. But I am not fully on board with _The Last Jedi_. The film is a fun watch, and if you were to take it as a whole, then place it in a bubble, it's a pretty good movie too, but a lot about it is... Pointless. I'm not saying the movie was pointless, it has a lot to offer, and deserves its place as Episode VIII, but there are moments started within _The Last Jedi_ that end up being pointless by the time the credits roll, and more than that, it goes back to ideas from the _Star Wars_ saga as a whole, and makes them pointless too. _Final rating:★★½ - Had a lot that appealed to me, didn’t quite work as a whole._

Really disappointing. Our heroes of Star Wars have essentially wasted their lives and achieved nothing. We were promised sequels and got a retread. I for one would have loved to see the building of the Galactic Republic against terrorists of the Imperial Remnant. Instead, we got Failure Luke, Failure Leah, gone nowhere Chewie and a rebel alliance that appeared to entirely fail to do anything meaningful after episode 6. I actually have less difficulty accepting 1,2 and 3 into canon then I do this pap. My headcanon has already decided, these movies do not count.

The Last Jedi started with a very tense emotion, capturing all viewers' attention tightly including mine (I've seen all movie episodes of Star Wars series so this type of scenario should look familiar to me). This tense and epic feeling filled the entire film, so even it is a bit lengthy, people won't sleep over :) however, the scenes involving Rey and Luke on the isolated island planet look super quiet and mindful. It was similar to the scene in previous episode when Luke was seeking help from the Yoda Master. However, it felt more complex, because never had Yoda been described being evil, not a bit. One tiny detail that I felt redundant and unconvincing was the reincarnation of Leia Princess. How did she fly back to the ship? As far as I can tell, no reason is given in the film. This lets you suspect whether she was going to be who can command the Force like a Jedi, but well all you can do is just suspecting. Another critical option that I had to express was about the role of Kylo Ren. He is a complex character, and I am not sure that he believed in until the very end of the story. The climax of this complexity arrived at the scene when he killed Snoke and fought along with Rey, trying to persuading her to come for *a new world*. But this complexity simply came and disappeared. The story continued in the old way and our powerless always furious Ben Solo kept playing a simpleton role of any typical bad guy. The role is depicted as, adequately complex, but not consistent and lively enough (compared to the former Lord Darth Vader).