Review of Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) by Marco A — 08 Jul 2018

While the movie is visually stunning and contains a few compelling characters it suffers from a severe identity crisis. The theme of the first two acts was subverting expectations, yet the final act of the movie throws that idea out the window and fulfills nearly every expectation, but does it so late and sudden that it gives the viewer whiplash.

It starts trying not to be "Empire Strikes Back" but gives up on that and begins throwing Empire allusions left and right. It can't find the right pace and the 2.5 hour run time drags on because of that.

The tonal shifts are anything but subtle, going from pensive to comedic to action filled in a matter of minutes over and over again. The movie lacks nuance, can't find a theme to stick to, and is 45 minutes longer than it needs to be.

It doesn't ruin Star Wars, but it is a mediocre film being marketed as a blockbuster masterpiece with a production crew too prideful to admit their mistakes.