STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI (2018)
Directed by Rian Johnson
Written by Rian Johnson & George Lucas
Starring Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Mark Hamill, Oscar Isaac, Carrie Fisher, John Boyega & Kelly Marie Tran
Synopsis (IMDb): “Rey develops her newly discovered abilities with the guidance of Luke Skywalker, who is unsettled by the strength of her powers. Meanwhile, the Resistance prepares to do battle with the First Order.”
It took a while to get my head around this one. And I’m still not sure I should do this review without seeing The Last Jedi once more. But as I don’t, at the moment, have a chance to see it, I’ll try my best to give my opinion. As always, this will be mostly spoiler free review. I have to add some pics to make my point.
As it is usually easiest to me to see films through Oscar categories, I’ll take a look at The Last Jedi piece by piece.
First of all, The Last Jedi looks good. I, especially, adored the production design. And I loved the colour scheme. Those bold colours of red, black and white. They just do it for me everytime. And within this story they worked wonders. Though some might think they’re too into your face. But I like!
I also liked sounds and visual effects of course and I believe the film should be nominated for Oscars on those categories. As well as the production design, it just stands out. Music is also guaranteed John Williams but nothing we haven’t heard before because we already got to know those fantastic new themes for Rey and Kylo Ren in The Force Awakens. None of the new stuff caught my ear the way I would remember it now, eight days later after seeing the film.
When it comes to acting, I have no complaints, I think everyone has come to their own. Daisy Ridley is Rey, Adam Driver is superb in picturing tormented soul of Kylo Ren and I appreciated a lot that the plot went his way much more than in TFA. Carrie Fisher, of course, has always been the perfect princess soldier although in the last two installments she’s definitely the queen. And Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker has never been this good. Or maybe he has and I just didn’t appreciate his younger, whiny self. Though, he’s still whining. But acting is great and I liked a lot Luke’s story. Worked for me.
I also enjoyed the diversity and having more female characters, especially Kelly Marie Tran as Rose, but to be honest, there were way too many characters on the board. And I didn’t care what happened to them despite them having some nice scenes. But I would love to see more of Oscar Isaac’s Poe. Isaac is hugely talented actor and I somehow feel that he’s being wasted here. Plus I like his rebelliousness almost as much as I loved Han Solo back in the day. What’s not to like in the bad boy who saves the day? Thankfully we have Kylo Ren to keep that bad boy attitude up. Pity that in the same timewe also have so, so many wasted characters. Almost including John Boyega’s Finn. But he had nice chemistry with Rose despite the fact that story almost messed it all up.
Btw, I love the fact that Chewbacca actor of today is Finnish.
There’s been A LOT of complaints of The Last Jedi not being right kind of Star Wars film. And I disagree and agree at the same time. I was thoroughly entertained and watch the most of the film from the edge of my seat. And marveling some amazing shots, made probably by computer but who cares when your eyes rest on them. I especially liked the ending, it felt and looked great. Cinematography worked nicely together with set and visual effects. As well as action were beautiful, including that out of reality (duh!) fight with light sabers and other cool weapons. Not to mention cool people.
But the plot. I don’t know. Too much of everything, I guess? Something was off but I can’t really point out what. Too many characters, like I said, but maybe too many story-lines too? And I didn’t really get Rey’s journey. Maybe I’ll get answers in the next episode. I sure hope so at least. And I hope they get rid of those, what they were called, porgs? Yeah, they’re cute but nothing else. Too much of everything. That was the main problem for me. But The Last Jedi is not a bad movie. Not even near. But it’s not The Empire Strikes Back. And it’s not even The Force Awakens but I am interested to see what happens next.
Rating: **** (out of 5)
Here we are again. The best time of the year, the Oscars time! And here are my final nominations. In few hours we’ll be hearing what the Academy picked.
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now over. But I’m glad they wrapped it up before it got sour. Btw, it’s surprisingly funny and big thanks for that goes to Maggie Smith. There is a reason why she’s been honoured because of the role again and again. She’s amazing.
