Review of Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) by Denis D — 06 Jan 2018

Spoiler filled review...

....that having been said... Luke Skywalker deserved better than this...

So this movie didn't get EVERYTHING wrong in the way the prequels did. However, it does represent, what I feel to be, a monumental misunderstanding of several characters, particularly (and most tragically) Luke Skywalker.

Most of the characters are not developed at all in this movie. While there is some interesting stuff going on between Kylo and Rey in this film, most of the characters, including Rey, are left pretty much where they left off by te end of Episode VII...Rey is a good guy who's past is shrouded in mystery, Kylo Ren is an asshole who wants to kill everyone, Finn is generally a good dude, but mostly he cares about Rey and seeing that she is ok. Yup..That's pretty much it for the new guys...except that General Hux has devolved from "space Hitler" in the last movie, to a sort of pathetic, slapstick cartoon character in this movie.

... which brings me to the old characters...oh man...Luke...what have they done to you?

...Remember the Luke Skywalker who never ran from challenge, no matter how insurmountable it seemed? Remember the Luke who rushed headlong into danger to save his friends, despite being told by his mentors that it was a bad idea?..Remember the Luke...who, after discovering that his father was one of he most powerful...feared...hated...loathsome...EVIL people in the world...never gave up...never gave in to the darkness and despair...and inspired us all to be more than what we started out as? Well...say goodbye to that Luke...because now Luke is nothing more than a sad, curmudgeonly old man who has given up hope...hope in other people...hope in his family...hope in the galaxy...and perhaps most tragically, hope in himself...

If you were hoping that maybe Han was mistaken in Episode VII and that Luke didn't just run away from everything and go into hiding when the going got tough...well...I'm afraid you were dead wrong...because that's exactly what Luke did. He made a mistake....experienced failure...and then shut down. turned away from everything that once mattered to him...turned away from his family...and apparently did nothing but go fishing and milk large alien teets for several years, while the peace he had strived for, the peace which many had died for, came crumbling down beneath the weight of Kylo Ren's betrayal.

...and how is Luke Skywalker, the most legendary hero of the Galaxy, redeemed?...he does a thing...which I guess is really hard to do...and then...dies....of something...wait how did he die again? oh, that's right...i don't know because the movie never told me...he just dies....

FOR NO READILY UNDERSTANDABLE REASON MY CHILDHOOD HERO DIED, ALONE ON SOME RANDOM PLANET, AFTER SPENDING YEARS SULKING, AGAINST HIS OWN WELL-ESTABLISHED, PRO-ACTIVE, FORWARD-THINKING CHARACTER, AND TO TOP IT ALL OFF HE IS MOURNED BY THOSE WHO WERE CLOSEST TO HIM FOR ALL OF 5 SECONDS WHEN THEY BASICALLY SAY: "Luke is dead. I felt it...but it's ok, he was at peace," "I agree. Let's move on.".

At the risk of sounding like a whiney, disgruntled fanboy (which I suppose I am), i'll sum up with this last phrase:

FUCK YOU, MOVIE.