The »Empire Strikes Back« of our Days

Rating: 10/10 (30 December 2017)

»The Last Jedi« (TLJ) is the »Empire Strikes Back« (ESB) of our days. It proves that Star Wars is not bound to endlessly recycle its predecessors' nostalgia focus nor retread anything the original trilogy (OT) did. The OT movies are a special case of lightning striking. Rehashing what they did would be fruitless, but rethinking why the achieved what the did is exactly what TLJ is doing. It pays reference to the greatest and most foundational theme in Star Wars: Hope. And it develops, in Kylo Ren, the most complex villain ever, and with Rey a hero that chooses to be a hero - not unlike Luke Skywalker in the very first Star Wars movie. It is a divisive movie for some, but it approaches you with an open heart and if you approach the movie just like that, you are in for a ride of a lifetime. TLJ is doing for Star Wars today what ESB has done for Star Wars back then: it gives it a future beyond its past.