Spoiler Talk Review for Star Wars Ep VIII: The Last Jedi

Once again, I don’t own the pic. Found it on Google. Pretty sure it’s one of the standard ones Disney released to promo the movie.

Introduction:

I thoroughly enjoyed The Last Jedi, but being the middle of a trilogy, it’s not likely to be my favorite Star Wars movie of all time. I’ll definitely see it again, but I’m still not sure if it’ll make me get out to theaters as much as The Force Awakens. (Saw that 14 times during it’s run, though to be fair it was in theaters until like March.) It’s definitely the sort of movie that’s worth seeing in theaters a few times.

Things I picked up only on the second time through:

– Luke’s fight with Kylo on the salt planet. He doesn’t leave footprints. I don’t think their lightsabers strike each other either. I think Luke dodges the whole time. Didn’t pick up on that the first time.

– The elevator conversation between Kylo Ren and Rey. They’re technically both correct.

Epic Moments:

– When Kylo Ren pulls Rey’s lightsaber toward himself and Rey and she reaches up and snatches it out of the air.

– When the Resistance ship slices through Snoke’s ship.

– Poe clearing out the surface canons on the dreadnaught.

– Luke becoming one with the Force.

Moments I could have done without:

I think it’s worth saying that the movie wasn’t perfect. The story wasn’t perfect.

– Luke getting milk.

– Rey and the mirror within mirrors. There’s probably really deep meaning in that scene, but I still find it annoying.

 

Funny Moments:

– Chewie’s dinner with a Porg audience.

– When Rey takes out the stone pillar and it tumbles down the hill, destroying the caretaker’s cart in the process.

– Poe ignoring General Hux while stalling for time.

– Yoda’s Force Ghost vs the tree on the sacred island.

 

Favorite Moments:

(There’s going to be some overlap here, but there are also some small moments that I really enjoyed that might not be tops of everybody’s picks.)

– Chewie’s dinner with a Porg audience.

– When Rey takes out the stone pillar and it tumbles down the hill, destroying the caretaker’s cart in the process.

– When Rey’s coffin-like pod from the Falcon gets dropped off in space.

– When the Resistance ship slices through Snoke’s ship.

– Porg vs Falcon window.

– Rey and Kylo Ren vs the Praetorian Guards. I especially like the last moment of that fight.

– BB-8 vs the cops on the casino planet (after being in the casino a while and having drunk patrons fill him with coins.)

– Rey lifting rocks at the end. It’s such an inglorious task but it’s exactly what the heroes needed at that moment.

 

Quotes and Exchanges:

(Only saw it twice, some of these are paraphrases.)

Luke: “Where are you from?”

Rey: “Nowhere.”

Luke: “Noone’s from nowhere.”

Rey: “Jakuu.”

Luke: “Okay, that’s pretty much nowhere.”

 

Luke: “There’s nothing you can say that can make me change my mind.”

R2D2: *Plays the recording of Princess Leia begging Obi-Wan Kenobi for help.*

Luke: “That was a cheap move.”

 

Poe: “‘Finn. Naked. Bag leaking.’ What? Did you fry a chip?”

 

 


Spoiler-Free Review of Star Wars Ep VIII: The Last Jedi

I do not own the picture…found it on Google. Thought it was pretty.

Summary:

Rey tries to enlist Luke Skywalker’s help while the Resistance fights for survival.

Additional Comments:

– As with The Force Awakens, there are about four main, interwoven threads to the story, focusing on Poe and the Resistance, Rey and Luke, Finn and Rose, and Kylo Ren. The editing is fairly decent in terms of balancing how much screen-time each major thread gets.

– Porgs = useless but absolutely adorable.

– The franchise has definitely been Disney-fied. That’s not necessarily a good or bad thing, just a way of life.

– I enjoyed the movie a lot, though probably not quite so much as The Force Awakens. The main turn-off for me is simply it being the middle of a trilogy. There are a lot of open threads at the end of this story. As a huge fan of closure, that’s annoying to me.

Conclusion:

I probably won’t see it quite so many times as I saw The Force Awakens (14), but I will definitely watch it a few more times in theaters and buy the Blu-ray when it’s available.

I’ll have a spoiler-talk review up soon too since I’m assuming most of the die-hards have seen it already.

Aside:

I’m not sure if I’ll read the book or listen to the audiobook. I think the book has a lot of potential to expand on things, but I did not enjoy their last pick for an author to do the novelization. This round should be better, but I’m just hesitant.

Come back for the spoiler talk…