tremendously exciting but a bit overloaded

Rating: 8/10 (27 December 2019)

I just saw the new star wars film today and it was decent enough entertainment. there is no arguing with the scope of the story, the fx or the battle sequences, there is plenty of all that and it all looks very exciting on screen. the climax left me feeling a little bit exhausted; luckily they did have a proper, really grand climax and did not cheat out of it and leave it until another film. for one brief moment when they were all getting ready i was afraid that they would, but we were lucky there. there are some nice cameos, mark hamill and harrison ford did extremely well and i was impressed; carrie fisher was a little bit low key, my understanding was that cgi reconstruction was necessary of course, it came across that way shame she couldn't have done it herself but that would have been impossible of course. daisy ridley was impressive as rey, likewise adam driver as kylo. this is fortunate really as some key scenes absolutely depend on them, and they work together really well. someone comes back from the dead and gets very nasty; this plot twist worked incredibly well. he certainly was evil. another good surprise was richard e. grant, very effective indeed and light years away from withnail and i, not a spliff in sight. there were several gripping scenes some of which had very good fx behind them. some of the biggest and best surprises came on the side of good. compassion, mercy and redemption all figure into the plot in important ways. this displays strong moral values and provided a clear distinction between good and evil. more so the the battles or the fx, the moral choices which certain characters make during key moments was for me reward enough, to see people doing right in the end. evil here is very capable and make the victories won by good feel as if they have been earned.