Porgy And Bess

Rating: 7/10 (9 January 2020)

Another film watched in preparation for seeing Episode 9 at the cinema in the upcoming week. My feelings, based on the only time I'd seen "The Last Jedi" before was that I didn't really like it, particularly as a follow up to "Force Awakens". Watching them both again now, my opinion has flipped, and though this film has more stuff that I don't like, it does both try something different with the universe, and have higher high points.
The Resistance are racing across the Galaxy trying to escape an Empirical flotilla led by General Hux (Domnhall Gleeson). Disturbingly, the First Order appear to be able to track their opposition through hyperspace, which has previously not been possible. Running low on fuel and with the command structure become increasingly fractured they form a desperate plan. Meanwhile, Rey (Daisy Ridley) finds Luke Skywalker (Mark Hammill) unwilling to take her on as a student, given how badly it turned out with his last student.
Whilst I think Episode VII is consistently OK, episode VII has a much wider range of both good and bad moments. Bad times include Leia in space and essentially the whole section on the casino planet but those are weighed up against one of the best lightsabre fights in the entire saga, the final jump to lightspeed and the fact that the whole central plot is something different. No super weapons to be destroyed. No Shields to fall. I was disappointed at the first viewing, that "Jedi" abandoned some of the ideas that "Force Awakens" put into place, Rey's parentage, for example. But, at the time, (and certainly now having seen "Skywalker") I like that idea that anyone can be a hero.
Much more uneven than its predecessor, but ultimately the good outweighs the bad. My favourite of the sequel trilogy.