Review of Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) by Weirdbeard M — 13 Oct 2018

This is a solid entry into the star wars franchise, however it's a lackluster film when compared against the other great Star Wars films. For starters, with the set up from the Force Awakens the force should currently be expanding, maybe even adding new interesting force-using characters, in this film we get a retraction of the force, a retraction of the Jedi again, and a completely non-sensical retraction of the dark side. We also get the near decimation of the entire Resistance, which following the destruction of the death star in the Force Awakens really doesn't make a lot of sense. A lot of the questions set up by episode 7 such as who are Rey's parents, Will Kylo re-join the light, what has Luke been doing; get very very unclear, unfinished, non-existent, or unsatisfying answers in this film.

As far as the portrayal of the force in this film, and force-users; we continue to get the almost completely inexplicable rise of Rey, who has undergone a mere 3 days of training compared to character's such as Snoke and Kylo Ren who have had a lifetime of training, being an equal match for the strongest force characters in the trilogy. It continues to make no sense, divert the plot into nonsensical storylines, and drag down the overall trilogy.

Outside of the force users, with the regular characters such as Poe, and Leia, this film was 50 % good 50 % bad. On the one hand everything felt very Star Wars, it was slightly entertaining to watch and kept a torrid action pace, however often times the plot sunk its teeth into some of the most minimal explanations as to completely fantastical situations. Such as a single resistance ship with some 300-400 resistance fighters basically able to fend off the entire First Order with some 5 star cruisers for almost the entire film.

Overall I would rate this film close to a 70%, but since we have such high expectations for Star Wars and since the profitability of the franchise and the rabid dedication of the fan-base to what is many people's favorite franchise(saga) I have to give this a lower rating since it's a weak entry into the overall star wars universe. The film just doesn't pay close enough attention to what it means as an overall Star Wars film to give it a higher rating.