Star Wars-The Last Jedi.
Rian Johnson directs this much anticipated outing of the Star Wars franchise. His previous work includes Looper (2012) and Brick (2005) which is easily one of my favourite film of the noughties.
We re-join Rey, Fin, Poe, Luke and Leia along with a few new additions to the story as they continue their battle against The First Order.
Now, where to begin?
I know this will split opinions but here we go.
Because The Force Awakens reminded people of A New Hope so much there were worries that this would be another Empire. Well tonally there are similarities but that’s where it ends.
Rian Johnson and his cinematographer Steve Yedlin, who worked with him on the 2 films I mentioned earlier, have made a beautiful looking movie here. Stunning shot after stunning shot flow through the 2h 32m runtime. There were tones of Looper in here and a shot that more than resembled the Apocalypse Now film cover ……..but with ATAT’s in it which obviously means it’s cooler.
The wide shots of the lightsabre battles were just so visually satisfying, none of this close up of people’s faces nonsense that we had to endure in other Star Wars films.
The acting was great, but with so many characters I’ll only discuss a few
Adam Driver continues to impress, I love the complexities of Kylo Ren he’s such a good villain and you just never know what’s he’s going to do next. His interactions with Rey are his best scenes for me. Daisy Ridley I didn’t really have an opinion on, she wasn’t bad by any means it’s just my focus was elsewhere. Most of her scenes early on were with Mark Hamill, and I have to say I thought this was the best performance I’ve ever seen from him. His weary and grizzled portrayal of Luke was great, he may not have liked the direction Rian wanted to take his character in but it didn’t show in any way. In every act of this film he is so good, I just wanted more every time he was off screen.
I found it tough watching scenes with Leia and there were some that were even more poignant than they should have been, but it was a mixture of sadness with a smile as I watched Carrie Fisher’s final scenes. The first woman in my sci fi memory that wasn’t a damsel in distress. Getting sad as I type this so let’s move on.
The plot is a little tougher to talk about with no spoilers but let’s just say it was strong, real strong. To all those theorists out there that were busy crafting after TFA, well I think you’ll enjoy what you’re going to see. It took me places I didn’t know I wanted to go until I got there. One minor negative was a little subplot that took me out of the movie every time we revisited it, but I’ll take that every day of the week if the rest of a movie is as good as this.
The comedy hits almost 100% of the time and the Porgs are not the new Ja Ja Binks so worry not people.
For me, whilst The Force Awakens made me feel 12 again and I loved the action, this film is something completely different. I need to watch it again really, but my first impression is:
This film blew me away. It’s ridiculously good. It (and I know this may be controversial) is almost Empire good and may well become so on a few more viewings.
As Johnson moves on to the Star Wars spin-off trilogy, I say ‘You’re up to bat JJ, do good work and finish strong’
Youngy's Film Reviews 