Review of Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) by Aggelos M — 26 Jan 2018

The Last Jedi takes many risks for a movie in a 40yr old multi-billion dollar franchise. This alone is to be applauded as many of its ilk are content with treading familiar territory. Rian Johnson has produced the most original Star Wars movie since The Empire Strikes Back.

TLJ develops the new Characters introduced in The Force Awakens further while letting the legacy characters of Luke and Leia shine. Especially Mark Hamill's Luke Skywalker is portrayed in a intriguing, complex and multi-layered way.

Hamill gives the performance of his lifetime in a live action movie. You can see a direct link from Luke Skywalker at the end of Return of the Jedi, a man who as chosen not to fight with a lightsaber but with love and compassion, to Luke at the and of TLJ.

Alongside Rey, Luke has the other, his second hero's journey. The problems some people seem to have with TLJ come down to either expectations and/or the narrative structure of the movie. It is a character-driven story, so you best focus on the three triangles of Luke/Rey/Kylo, Leia/Poe/Holdo and Rose/Finn/DJ.

The central characters have an impressive journey in this movie and after a second viewing, the structure becomes much clearer. All in all the best Star Wars movie in a long time, on par with TESB.