Overall Rating: 6 out of 10

The Last Jedi is an OK installment in the Star Wars series.  It took seeing it twice though.  After leaving the first time I was confused and disappointed.  Several things bothered me.  It seemed choppy, thin, and a bit lazy.  But seeing it for the second time with my kids I liked it better.  Changed my rating from a 4 to a 6.  On with the review!

Huge Reaches

Princess Leia should have died instantly in space.  But she lived, and was up and around in a couple days.  Sweet! I guess?  Unless this ties into her character passing away early in the next movie I have no idea what that was supposed to be.  Or why it was in the movie at all.  Ray and Kylo being able to be talk and touch each other from other places in the universe was a weak reach.  As well as Luke doing the same.  Rose saved Finn and then dropped the lame line, “We save what we love!” That’s gooey and nice.  I guess?  There was also a lot of “fuel” talk in The Last Jedi.  Since when did ships need to stop and fill up?  It was always a reactor that needed fixing.   Or parts that broke.  Nobody talked fuel in previous movies, did they?  Ships dropped bombs as if there was gravity.  But hey we just assume they are propelled?  Supreme Leader Snoke should be able to read Kylo’s mind, but he got whacked like a dummy and he is gone.  That’s it?  I thought there is always two Siths no more and no less?  I guess they abandoned that too?  It seems they made the transition to the new Jedi being nobodies.  Ray’s parents are just junkers.  Although I am not sure that is true.  The little boy in the end is going to be a next Jedi and he lives with the Yoda horse things for now in Casino land.  But then again, the first Jedi had to be nobodies I suppose.  Lots of reaches in this one is my bottom line.  Reaches that seem lazy.

Dark Enough

Millions went in with the expectation of this matching The Empire Strikes Back.  This being the second of the latest set it should be dark and a transition movie.  The movie fulfilled that in Luke dying, the Jedi Temple burned, and Yoda proclaiming Ray is on her own and she is all good.  Everybody is dead except for Leia, Ray, Finn, Rose, Poe, Chewbacca, and the Droids.  Thoughts and prayers for Admiral Ackbar you were my boy Blue!  I didn’t know until the second viewing that Ray saved the books.  Which now makes that Yoda scene tolerable.  My daughter’s first comment afterwards had a confusion tone.  “Yoda was acting so trashy…” Got a nice laugh from that.  Did Luke die from the stress of transporting his spirit cross galaxy?  Or was it just time for him to be spirit Luke? Ray after all described his passing as, “Peaceful and with purpose.”  So, the old crew except Leia is gone and they are a skeleton resistance now on the run.  Dark enough.

Disneyfied

The main reason for my 6 rating is the progression to more busy screen stuff than story.  A large portion of the movie was blasters, bombers, pods, planet hopping, and yadda yadda.  As someone who prefers a good drama or thriller over special effect wizardry movies I can tune out when a movie goes that way.  You always know what will happen ultimately, or you just wait for the last explosion in the scene.  This is what the new Star Wars will be under Disney.  J.J. Abrams likes that stuff too.  More Yoda horses, crystal critters, Jedi caretakers, and cute penguin bird things to sell.  More Lego sets.  More jokes with less laughing because it is forced.  But hey it is just a movie.  This one seemed almost half pew pew (blaster noise implied) and half story.  Hopefully they will cap it here.  During the casino planet part my son leaned over and said, “How much longer do you think?”  As soon as the movie ended he said, “It was all over the place.”  Star Wars has become fully Disney-fied.

This isn’t the first relative dud in the Star Wars saga and it won’t be the last.  As a follow-up to The Force Awakens, and compared to The Empire Strikes Back, this movie disappointed.  But on its own a decent movie.  Enjoy!