Weekly Review: Star Wars – The Last Jedi (2017)

As Rey pursues her Jedi training with Luke Skywalker, the First Order launches an assault on the dwindling resistance.

After the release of 2015’s The Force Awakens and 2016’s Rogue One, the 2017 release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi was bound to be a highly anticipated release. The Force Awakens ended on a cliffhanger that reunited fans with Luke Skywalker, and in the two years that followed, the internet was abound with fan theories. Would any of them come to fruition?

I was incredibly excited for The Last Jedi. Despite the criticism that The Force Awakens was a rehash of A New Hope, which I agree with, I was really intrigued by the new characters. I was looking forward to seeing how the storylines progressed based on the possibilities that The Force Awakens opened up. The story of that particular film might not have been the most original, but I thought it was well done, and it made me excited for future films.

As much as I wanted to like The Last Jedi, I didn’t. I didn’t like The Last Jedi. This is definitely an unpopular opinion, and I have certainly felt the ramifications of that since I originally saw it in theaters. The movie has ben quite polarizing among fans. Some absolutely love it, claiming its the best Star Wars film since the original trilogy. Some hate it, despising what it does to the characters and the lore and what not.

Me, personally? For one, I didn’t like the humor. The Force Awakens had its fair share of humorous moments that were very Disney, but The Last Jedi takes the jokes to a whole other level. I was really taken aback by it all. It’s humor I would expect from an episode of Family Guy or Guardians of the Galaxy, but not Star Wars. It was too much for me, way too much for me. There were a couple of moments when I chuckled, but I was mostly rolling my eyes. I just was not feeling it.

On top of that, I really wasn’t a fan of the way the film was edited. It bounced back and forth between different locations and scenarios so much that it really disrupted the flow of the overall story they were trying to tell. You could say that this is a Star Wars thing in general, but it ended up confusing me about the timeline of events overall. It cut from one piece of the story just as it was interesting. It would use a typical Star Wars wipe to transition from one shot to another in the same location. I didn’t think it helped with the overall run time of the film either.

My general dislike for The Last Jedi doesn’t even really include most of the problems that other fans have. I’m not a die hard Star Wars fan. I don’t have the nostalgia factor to worry about. I’m not tied to any fan theories or lore of any sort. I do dislike some of the choices that were made in this film, but only because I would have executed that same choice differently, not because of the decision itself.

I went into this film expecting a sequel to The Force Awakens. On that front, I was extremely disappointed. It doesn’t deliver as a sequel. The writer/director Rian Johnson essentially tosses out any story points that were created in the previous film.

The Last Jedi really is a story of disappointment in many ways. It’s not what you’re going to be expecting. It tells you to “Forget the past. Kill it if you have to.” This would have been fine as a stand alone film I guess, but as a middle film in a trilogy? It felt like an end. Where does Episode IX really go from here?

Most compliments I’ve seen for The Last Jedi are that it shakes things up. It does things differently. Sure, it does do things differently. I just don’t think it was executed well.

I held off on posting this review for almost 7 months. I originally saw it on opening weekend, and I hated it. I knew I needed to see it a second time in order to really put my thoughts in order because of the horrible reaction I had. I refused to pay theater pricing to see a movie I disliked for a second time though. That’s why this review lines up with The Last Jedi‘s release on Netflix!

Upon a second viewing, most of my thoughts are still the same. I really just don’t think the film was executed well. It feels very lackluster to me. When braced for its particular brand of humor, it got a couple more laughs from me, but the humor still feels too much.

I enjoy many of the things that were attempted here. I liked a lot of the ideas behind new characters. I like the idea behind Leia finally being shown to utilize the force. I can roll with the idea of disappointment and whatever else Johnson was trying to do plot wise. I just can’t shake the feeling that it all could have been handled so much better.

Needless to say, I’m not a huge fan of this installment in the Star Wars franchise, so I personally wouldn’t recommend it, but I understand that it exists and it has some plot points that will probably be important moving forward. Just brace yourself for disappointment, because I feel that disappointment is probably the only thing that the film handled well.