Regular readers, if there are such things, will know I have some history with the series of small arthouse movies under the collective moniker of Star Wars. See the angst for The Force Awakens and Rogue One ... and one day I may even blog about my experience in Santa Monica with the Phantom Menace.
However I had read good things about Last Jedi and was quite looking forward to going. Partly because I was going to a "Superscreen" in the Cineworld but mainly because, for once, I wasn't going on my own. Just as an FYI, there are three "Superscreens" in the Cineworld - they are premium screens with upgraded screen, sound, projection and seating. For once, the reality lived up to the promise - the presentation was stunning. It it worth a premium of five pounds per person or thereabouts? For you to decide, but for me it was well worth it.
Non-spoiler brief review
I liked it a lot, but ... there are quite a few big buts (and I like big buts) which I'll get into in the spoiler section. But suffice it to say it is pretty good. Most of the main characters have interesting story arcs and their narratives make sense - things happen logically out of their actions mostly - and as such the screenplay gets a thumbs up. There are some things which I didn't like but I'll get to those.
The summary is it well worth going to see. It is entertaining, emotional in places, and has moments of genuine tension and wonderful design and is a thoroughly enjoyable 150+ minutes of your time. If you can, see it on the biggest screen possible as the detail is impressive. Most impressive. It helps if you're already invested in the all the existing characters so far of course.
Spoiler-filled review
I'm going to assume you've already seen it so I won't regurgitate the plot.
There was a lot that worked. Rey, Ren and Luke's arcs were well thought out and developed pretty naturally - little seemed forced. Rey and Ren had the best sequence in the whole movie - after Ren kills Snoke he and Rey team up for the ultimate Galaxy Of Heroes style fight against Snoke's Praetorian Guard. This is a truly impressive sequence and is, to my mind, the best sabre fight yet in the Star Wars saga (trumping Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi's face-off against Darth Maul in the otherwise execrable Phantom Menace).
The visuals were, as you might expect, hugely impressive with levels of detail surpassing pretty much anything seen thus far. Sound design is stunning, with a wide dynamic range, lots of sudden cues and the most surprisingly effective sound effect in the whole film - sudden silence - deployed to quite superb effect. The music was a little understated but when needed the classic tracks were all deployed at the right time - John Williams' iconic score keeps getting better and better.
The screenplay is pretty funny in places, which I wasn't really expecting, with most of the humour coming fairly naturally rather than being clumsily forced. I was expecting to hate the Porgs but they turned out to be an excellent addition to the Star Wars canon - can Porg: The Movie be far away? Acting is a tad variable in places with Daisy Ridley appearing a little wooden at times - especially at the start of the film. Hamill, Driver, Boyega, Isaac and Serkis all do good work as Luke Skywalker, Kylo Ren, Finn, Poe Dameron and Snoke respectively. Laura Dern is pretty good in the initially cold and unsympathetic character of Admiral Holdo and gets a spectacular send-off. Benecio Del Toro is largely wasted and bizarre. There are some cameos from older characters - one strange (Maz Kanata) and one rather touching (Yoda). And, of course, there is the luminous Carrie Fisher bringing the gravitas and poignancy to General Organa - but I'll speak of her a little later.
If you have daughters then this is a great film to show them as women are everywhere, fighting and working together with men, aliens and droids. Pilots, admirals, leaders, engineers - it's a truly diverse cast without seeming forced and, apart from one painful and out-of-character moment where Finn basically hepeats a plan to Poe after Rose has just explained it (a truly awful and misjudged sequence) it is a pretty good example of proper equality.
There is a lot wrong with the film however. The strand with Finn and Rose on Canto Bite is depressingly routine - a mcguffin is found (the First Order can track us through light speed!), a solution is quickly found (disable the tracker on the first ship but it's encrypted!), a plan is hatched (find the Codebreaker!) and a routine, by-the-numbers video game level plays out including an outrageously clumsy coincidence - hey, an expert codebreaker just happens to be in the same cell Finn and Rose are thrown into! - and a largely superfluous stampede action scene.
There is a also an extended clumsy sequence showing the First Order fleet in "hot pursuit" of what is left of the Resistance forces. Apparently the entire First Order can't catch up with three frigates at sub-light speeds and these frigates just manage to stay out of range of their cannons (why not just send hundreds of TIEs at them then?). Even General Hux points this out when he asks in exasperation, "What is the point of all this (waves hands at the First Order fleet) if we can't even shoot down three frigates?". From a narrative point of view it stalls for time to allow the other characters to get into position, but jeez does it feel clumsy. Having said that it does have an almighty pay off ...
There are three main issues I have though and these are: Rey's parentage; the identity of Snoke and the utter misuse of Captain Phasma (again).
With regards to Rey's parentage, the revelation that they were nobody junk dealers who traded Rey on Jakku was surprising and troubling given Rey's immediate and sudden mastery of the Force at the end of Force Awakens. It may well be Ren was messing with Rey and there is a payoff in Episode 9 but the revelation immediately got me thinking of midichlorians and that is not a good thing. For one of the biggest mysteries of the previous film this was a pretty weak reveal.
I suppose there was really no need to give Snoke a backstory - he was just the latest big bad Sith guy apparently - but with nothing at all revealed about who he was and where he came from I felt a little short-changed. Doubtless the expanded universe will create one for him if it hasn't already, but as with Rey's parents, this felt as if a big question from the previous film was not just ignored but outright dismissed and that did not sit right in my mind.
Captain Phasma, as played by the wonderful Gwendoline Christie, had possibly the worst and shortest arc in Force Awakens and here she fared little better. For a character setup to be one of the ultimate First Order warriors she is barely in the movie, turns up at the end, gets in a fight with Finn then plunges to her (presumably) fiery death. I'm hoping that she somehow survived and crops up again in Episode 9 but I'm not holding my breath.
It would be churlish not to mention the obvious parallels with The Empire Strikes Back. From Rey's Jedi training and vision in a place "strong in the Dark Side" to pretty much a remake of the walker battle on Hoth to a low-key and downbeat ending with the Empire/First Order in the ascendancy it's clear where the inspiration came from. But it's nowhere near as obvious as Force Awakens was with A New Hope and doesn't distract too much.
Finally we come to the late, great Carrie Fisher. There is little more to be said about what a loss she is to the world after her sudden death this time last year. At the end of the movie as she is flying away in the Falcon with what is left of the Resistance she gives a little monologue to Rey and, well, if your heart isn't melting then you're a stronger person than me. Then at the end credits a message is displayed, "Dedicated to our Princess, Carrie Fisher" ... what a loss but what a good swansong she made of what turned out to be her final film.
Summary
I know it sounds like I'm a bit negative with the Last Jedi - I'm really not. It has a lot of very good points and even the negatives you can probably overlook if you want. I liked it, just didn't love it. My Companion and I were chatting for hours afterwards about what it all meant so it must have been okay. However it has set up Episode 9 rather well - effectively JJ Abrams and team have been given a pretty clean blank slate so where they take the story there is anyone's guess. Last Jedi made me want to see the next one, so in that respect job done.
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