Review of Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) by Stacey R — 13 Dec 2017

Within the first act of this movie it becomes painfully apparent that the creators have strived to cram in as many characters, locations and action scenes as possible, presumably for the benefit of merchandising. I understand, this has always been a big part of the Star Wars franchise but unfortunately in this case it's taken so far that each character, location and plot point receives only the thinnest courtesy of development. Most character dialog consists of poorly written profundities or constant verbalisation of every action they are taking and/or are about to take. This relentless and unnecessary exposition completely wipes out any sense of nuance in character motivation and actually becomes comical by the end.

The central plot involving the rebel fleet is very weak and makes little sense. The main cast does a reasonably job carrying the shameful dialog, and a few even shine - Adam Driver and Oscar Isaac are both great, and Daisy Ridley does a decent job but she has some of the worst dialog in the film that it holds her down. The supporting cast with few exceptions give wooden and caricatured performances that made me twist in my seat and during the action scenes I often found myself rooting for the bad guys just so I wouldn't have to sit through another hackneyed pseduo-inspirational "revelation".

The movie has a few nice moments and the action scenes are decent, but I definitely think there were too many overall. Each action scene cascades down from the proceeding one with little to no set-up or emotional preparation. Face-less characters are gunned down, ships explode and crash into each other in admittedly spectacular fashion - a decent thrill, but one that falls short of the intensity it could have achieved with a little more plot development and tension building. When there is no investment in setting up a situation, raising of the stakes or helping us care about characters, any threat to their existence feels hollow and ultimately it just comes down to creating situations where things can explode, one after the other.

In my view the only characters who get any real development time are Rey and Kylo. Their relationship is explored and expanded in a way that I hadn't predicted. There are some great scenes directly mirroring Luke's confrontation with Vader and the Emperor in Return of the Jedi, but I can't help but feel a little cheated as these moments hurtle by, littered among the shrapnel of too many other sub-plots, and the character of Snoke is reduced from his grand, formidable presence in The Force Awakens, to a pathetic, dirty old man who's really adds very little to the film in general.

Am I expecting too much from a Star Wars movie? Maybe. The original trilogy isn't perfect but it's simple, exciting plots centered around a few important characters is the reason it works so well. If you're in it for explosions, and beautiful CGI you'll have a good time. Enjoy yourself.