by Brandon Matzke

Well, Star Wars has been around for a long time. And it definitely doesn’t seem like it’s going to stop soon. This is the eight film in the main Star Wars series (excluding the 999,999+ spin-offs and fan movies) and takes place after the events of The Force Awakens, with Rey finding Luke (only for him to be a man of lost faith) and the rebellion fleeing from the infamous First Order. Sounds familiar? Well, there’s more. Rey and Kylo have a strange link in the force, secrets get revealed, and there’s space horses. Lots of them too.

Positives:

The characters are still the same we love: despite being the “wise old master,” Luke is still the teenager from Tatooine we all love. He had his humor, but also had a tragic history since Return Of The Jedi that made me still care about him. The newer characters felt expanded too, and the even newer characters felt interesting and fresh (just like how they should’ve been). I found a really interesting aspect of the film to be the relationship between Rey and Kylo Ren; it almost felt like a friendship at times, making some decisions made later in the film feel much more tragic. Rian Johnson’s direction is truly awesome, feeling just like a classic Star Wars film at times, but with a welcome modern touch (I said welcome, unlike the Special Editions). The visuals look great, combining CGI and puppets in the way The Force Awakens had introduced. The music is great, too: the familiar tunes are there, along with newer sounds. And the action is just so well executed, especially the finale. Plus, (no spoilers) a familiar face makes an awesome return.

Negatives

Some characters felt very underused, like Princess Leia, R2-D2 and C-3PO, and Poe Dameron. I know Carrie Fisher sadly passed during the making of the film, but her character could’ve been used for more than a deus ex-machina moment. Poe just felt one-dimensional: he’s a rebel, so your liking him seems to be the focus with him. And the two most iconic robots in Star Wars barely got to do anything. Some moments in the finale just dragged for me. Some reveals I thought were kinda cool, but disappointed many viewers (and I can see why).

Overall

The Last Jedi is proof that Star Wars is very far from ending, thanks to the talents and characters involved in this fantastic world. Is it flawed? Yeah, it has it’s issues. But it does have some heartfelt moments, and appears to be saying that the empire Lucas built is far from collapsing.

Well, you just finished reading my last review for 2017. I had fun this year: met a lot of great people (including really cool fans), saw some great flicks (and some bad, obviously), and got to enjoy my first year writing for this excellent school’s blog. I hope you enjoyed my first year (I promise to return if possible in 2018), and I suggest you follow us at the GHS Voice.