Review of Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) by Syd G — 17 Dec 2017

I've been thinking more. And this is the worst Star Wars movie of all time, by a mile. It wasn't "Star Wars.".

I have a lot of complaints about the plot, timing, and character development. But Star Wars has never been Casablanca or The Godfather. What separates Star Wars, and why it touches us so deeply, is that, ultimately, it's about how prioritizing love and friendship makes us human.

What ultimately drives events in Star Wars is that the characters always, ultimately, prioritize love and friendship above all else. Above religion (eg, Anakin continuously defied the Jedi order to help his mom and wife); above political causes (eg, characters would make poor strategic choices to save their friends, as the emperor accurately accused Luke of, as lando showed by putting his faith in Han over retreating in return of the Jedi, etc); and even above personal safety (eg, han, Luke, and Leia never leave-even while being attacked by armies of storm troopers or literally an attack by the Death Star-without first making sure their friends are safe).

This prioritizing of friends and love sometimes causes great success (eg, it was love that caused anakin to save Luke from the emperor, Jyn's fathers love guided her to the Death Star plans, Hans love for Luke caused him to turn around and save Luke so that Luke could blow up the Death Star, etc). Sometimes this prioritizing causes tremendous failure (eg, it was love for Padme-the promise that the dark side could teach anakin how to save padme from dying-that caused anakin to go to the dark side in the first place).

But it's this prioritizing that makes us human. And that's so beautiful. And simple.

And that prioritizing drives events in a Star Wars movie.

But that prioritizing was merely buried under the surface in "The Last Jedi," which, to me, makes "The Last Jedi" nothing more than another cookie-cutter action movie.