Review of Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) by Tricia O — 10 Jan 2018

I was very disappointed with The Last Jedi. I watched The Force Awakens and really enjoyed it despite them making Han Solo a deadbeat husband and father and Rey being so overpowered that I laughed at her, sorry, at the end light saber fight when she beat Kylo Ren. Despite these things and missing Luke Skywalker, I enjoyed the movie. I really liked Finn, he was my favorite of the new ones and I thought maybe he might be a Jedi too considering he fought with the light saber twice. I liked Rey, just thought her overpowered gifts were ridiculous. I wanted someone who one could relate to, who worked for what they had. All the other Jedi had to run the race to get the prize. Rey just shows up at the finish line and gets the prize. But I thought this could be explained with prior training in TLJ.

The Last Jedi. What a disappointment. I was silent driving home. I could not believe Disney and the others could be that stupid. First, what they did to Luke was unforgivable. I sought the reason why and did an internet search of Rian Johnson's thinking. I found an interview where he said (I am paraphrasing here) that he could not have Luke come back as Luke because who would Rey have to play against? After all, Luke was just an older version of Rey. WHAT??? Hello! Luke has been around 40 years, Rey 2 or 3.....if anything Rey is a younger version of Luke and the writers are at fault for that and yet Luke is punished, weakened, belittled so Rey looks good and again overpowered. I call her the instant genie jedi. She did not work for it, she got it by 'magic'. Uggh! Straight up character assassination of Luke!

Other things were Rey got not training and we learn nothing about her. Finn is off on some pointless side story. Poe is made to look whiny. Leia flies in space and other pointless, silly things I will not go into since others have stated them much better.

I feel the need to wash TLJ from my mind and I do not think JJ Abrams will repair it. So, I made up my own episode 9. In a brief summary here it is:

Luke was trapped on that island by a powerful sith Lord like Darth Plagueis (who could manipulate the force and possibly immortality, though he died, but who knows), anyway, some powerful sith. The force around that island is strong and different and that was why it was the site of the first jedi temple, but now it is being manipulated by the sith lord and it weakens Luke to take him out of the fight. Luke's force connection is dampened and he has been seeking ways to break out of this prison. That is why he does not train Rey when she comes to the island. He tries to scare he away, even lying to her that he tried to murder his nephew. He is afraid the sith lord will capture Rey and Luke seeks to protect her, get her as far from the island as possible. After Rey leaves and Luke's sacrifice (projecting himself was all he could do in his imprisoned state) he becomes one with the force, but in #9 he comes back in his physical form. That was the way to escape from the dark sith's trap. It was risky, in the old Jedi books it says this is possible, but very rare. It takes a powerful Jedi and the need of that Jedi in the physical world (I thought this was okay because in ROTJ when Luke tells Yoda he cannot die, Yoda replies that he is strong with the force but not that strong. Possibilites). So Luke returns in #9 and is stronger than ever and fights the dark sith on the cliffs of the island, thunder and lightening. Cool. It is a stand off and the sith retreats and goes to Kylo Ren and takes the throne, explaining that Snoke was his apprentice and now Ren is too. Ren fights Rey (who is now weakened now that Luke is back, but still talented) and Rey loses, it shakes her confidence and when Luke shows up, he trains her. Together they fight the dark sith and Kylo Ren. The outcome? Win! Luke is not killed off again as that would be awful to kill him twice. The movie ends with the thoughts of more training for Rey and training for Finn as a Jedi (why not?). Luke gives himself to the force off screen (in my little story) between 9 and 10 and is still the legend he is.

This is my story in my head. It redeems Luke's character and he gets a great light saber (maybe some force lightening too) battle and Rey gets hers too.

Well, back to TLJ. I did not like it at all, will not be seeing episode 9 or others in the near future. Wish the best to you all.