Not a Star Wars movie . . .

Rating: 5/10 (25 April 2018)

It's been quite a while since the release of the latest film in the Star Wars universe, so I'm figuring it's safe to release a review that has spoilers in it. But if you have not seen the movie, turn back! I don't want to spoil anything for anyone. So read no further if you don't want to be spoiled.
The Last Jedi seems to have been the most divisive movie of 2017. It seems to have been a love it or hate it movie, and thankfully I'm in the group that thoroughly enjoyed it. I feel like people have put Star Wars way too high on a pedestal to the point where no matter how good the movie is, there's always going to be someone who hates on it because it's got the name Star Wars in front of it. What's not to love about Luke Skywalker creating a hologram of himself and sending it to the rebels aid thousands of miles away, Kylo Ren killing the Snoke or Rey beginning to master her Jedi powers?
I get it, the tone of the movie was different than A New Hope and the Empire Strikes back, but if someone makes the argument that The Last Jedi is too "kiddie" or "goofy" I don't understand... (Have these people not seen Return of the Jedi? There's too many flatulence and belching jokes to count plus Ewoks are basically teddy bears. That's not even including Jar Jar Binks or any of the other weird stuff from the prequels).
Nevertheless, this movie is not without it's faults. Princess Leia suddenly being able to not only use the force to Superman herself back into the ship, but also being able to survive in space at all was strange to say the least. Plus the side adventure with Rose and Finn ended up being meaningless and felt like unnecessary filler in this already much longer than normal movie run time.
Overall, I like the movie a lot as a movie but not as a Star Wars movie. They kept the main theme of each movie being a war movie intact (the plot of the rebel ship being chased by the empire of course being a play on a naval battle). Mark Hamill was spectacular and he stole the show every time he was on screen. And the chemistry between Kylo and Rey was excellent. If you haven't given this movie a second watch I highly recommend it because it kinda gets better the second time around.