Hey Everybody, Freddy Beans here with a timely review of "Star Wars: The Last Jedi"
"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" was released to the masses a couple weeks back, so this isn’t timely. Yet, here I am writing a review, so do with that what you will.
Everyone that cares has seen this movie by now, and for those that haven’t, there’s definitely going to be some spoilers below. You’ve been warned.
The story starts with Poe, the ace pilot, going against Leia’s orders, his M.O. by this time in the new series. Poe’s idea in the film works, and he’s demoted for disobeying command in response. The space battles in this “Star Wars” are better than any I’ve seen on film. Everything works in these scenes, and you feel as if you’re in the captain’s seat as he maneuvers through the many baddies. I like Poe as a character, even if his character feels force-fed at times. He’s still a necessary component. I’m going to be shot in the streets like a Russian informant for this next bit, but I’m going to say it anyway. Every single scene with Leia feels weighed down. Not due to the fact we lost her last year. No, it’s because she can’t act. Her scenes have no heft, completely lacking the emotion I think is necessary to pull off her lines. Laura Dern completely outshines Leia here as the captain, when she arrives. I understand Leia is a key piece of this storyline, and I’m not begrudging her involvement. I’m simply stating, she takes me out of every scene she was in. I’m not sure removing her entirely from the film wouldn’t benefit it greatly.
After this, we follow Rey as she first comes across Luke on “The hardest location to find in the entire galaxy.” We watch as she begs to be taught by Luke, and he spends ¾ of the movie denying her completely. Predictably, softening his stance as we near the last quarter of the “last Jedi”. This works for me, though it’s hard to understand Luke’s motives in hiding from everything as it crashes and burns. Since we last saw Luke partying on Endor after saving the universe, I just have a hard time seeing his character do this.
For me this film felt like a blatant and large rip off of “Empire Strikes Back” where Luke learns the ways of the Jedi from Yoda. These scenes with Luke and Rey feel eerily similar to Luke and Yoda back in the day. In fact, there’s a bunch of scenes that just feel like reimagined “Empire” scenes. The elevator ride to see Snoke, is almost verbatim the same conversation Luke has with Vader in “Return of the Jedi” to boot- revealing they still feel the good in the apprentice that’s taking them to see the dark side leader. I can’t explain how much this stuff unnerved me. I think Star Wars is a large enough vision that it doesn’t need to copy from earlier films, but nostalgia is strong with these trilogies, so maybe I’m way off base.
I know reading this so far it must feel like I didn’t enjoy the film, you’d be wrong. I did. I just wanted more I think. As I walked out of the film, I wasn’t marveling with my sons about any scenes, like we do with all Marvel movies. We just kind of had this, well I’m glad we saw it feeling that permeated the air between us.
The special effects were simply amazing in this film. Every scene feels complete, even knowing it’s all CGI created. This is a Star Wars film- visually you won't be disappointed. I’m not trying to be a downer, just honest. Seeing all the old characters was a lot of fun, tying the newer films to the older ones most of us grew up on is a smart move. I loved seeing Yoda back to being a puppet still manipulated by the great Frank Oz. I really liked seeing Luke back in a feature film even if he’s mostly doom and gloom through the entire flick. He’s also, in my opinion, unable to handle some of the emotional strength that’s needed in his character, but he’s not hurting the film, I just think his scenes could have been stronger.
I can’t stop writing this review until I ask a few questions regarding his final battle with Kylo-Ren. I understand that Luke projects some holographic image of himself to the battlefield, and I’m fine with that. Luke’s holographic lightsaber is somehow able to deflects Kylo-Ren’s actual saber attacks in this epic battle. I'm not so fine with that. This is a very entertaining battle, these are just nitpicks of mine. I’m also not understanding how Luke passes away from this effort, even if I found it fitting.
And really, what is this thing and what's it doing in this film? It's a living breathing vending machine and felt completely pointless to this guy
To give context my order of Star Wars movies would be:
Empire Strikes Back
Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars
Return of the Jedi
Last Jedi
Force Awakens
Attack of the Clones
Revenge of the Sith
Phantom Menace
No one is going to see this film or not based on my review, you're either a fan of this world or you're not. I am, and I'll see the next one in this trilogy, while secretly hoping that the "Han" film raises the Star Wars universe to something we haven't seen before.
6.5 out of 10 geeks prefer Star Wars to Star Trek
Til the next time Kids
Freddy Beans
