Review of Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) by Joshua O — 17 Dec 2017

Rian Johnson clearly loves Star Wars, and clearly understands what makes it so powerful and meaningful to so many. The way he shows this love and understanding is "Star Wars: The Last Jedi." Johnson certainly didn't make the movie that fans wanted him to make, or the movie that Disney said would be the safest and most marketable to make.

He made the movie that is necessary to move Star Wars into the future, while still affirming that the values and ideas that were central to the franchise in 1977 will still be central to the stories to come.

Not all fans will like it. This is a challenging film, that forces fans to see beloved characters and classic situations in a new light. But nothing this movie is cynical. Luke Skywalker may have gone through hell, but this film proves that he is still the same hero who destroyed the Death Star and saved the galaxy.

And fans who can't see that on their first viewing, because they're distracted by how they thought the film would unfold will probably see it on their second. The fanservice doesn't go flying by a mile a minute, like in 2015's "The Force Awakens," but that just shows that Rian Johnson understands how to use fanservice more judiciously, and, as a result, make it more powerful.

The cinematography is gorgeous, the philosophical implications are thought-provoking, the dialogue is snappy, and every character is written and acted perfectly. All in all, my favorite Star Wars film since 1983.