Different, Bold, Refreshing.............at last !

Rating: 8/10 (14 December 2017)

Wow where do you start with this film, there is so much to process and figure after this marathon of a film. This film is certainly surprising and a breath of fresh air for the Star Wars Universe, from my point of view. However I get the feeling this film will be divisive and is definitely not for everybody, this is not your conventional Star Wars film.......at last.
Positives.
Rian Johnson has created a film that is truly different to anything that we have seen in the Star Wars films up until now and for me personally that is great. Even though I thought that The Force Awakens was a good film it felt a bit of a safe bet and to familiar, that cannot be said against this film. The directing for the most part is great considering the vast amount of story threads there are in this film, it is very difficult to balance them and I think he did the very best he could. Some scenes are absolutely breath taking from a visual standpoint, things that we have never seen in Star Wars before like the communication between Kylo and Rey is amazing. The story again for the most part is very good, it definitely takes some interesting turns throughout the film that keep you guessing and has you on the edge of your seat. Does it answer more questions than it brings up? No and that is brilliant that there are more questions at the end of it rather than everything being explained. I now understand why Disney gave Johnson a whole trilogy of his own, very well done for making Star Wars interesting again!
The Performances across the board a brilliant, John Boyega, Kelly Marie Tran, Oscar Issac, Domhnall Gleeson, Gwendoline Christie and Laura Dern are all really good in there roles. A shout out should go to Benicio Del Toro extremely interesting character that would love to see more of.........he did survive didn't he? Cant remember?
However there are a few others that are just a little bit better, starting with Mark Hamill. This is probably Hamill's best performance as Luke Skywalker there is a lot of depth with the character in the film and is quite different from Return of the Jedi. It shows the journey and the emotional struggle that the character has gone through, it is the most complex and best portrayal of the character I think we have got throughout the saga. Also the death of Skywalker is fantastically handled much better than Han in TFA, it served a purpose for the story and for the character, tear jerking moment. Adam Driver as Kylo Ren is again brilliant however there is definitely a sense of change in the character from Ep 7. He is much more driven to succeed and impress Snoke, however still being conflicted at the same time. At the end, Ren looses everything he had and is the victim of himself and clouded judgement. Daisy Ridley is much better in this film as Rey than in TFA, the character has purpose and determination to defeat Snoke and turn Ren back to the light side. The best scene was when Rey and Ren were side by side fighting the guards, hinting at the possibility of becoming a team and "grey" force users rather than Jedi or Sith. Andy Serkis as Snoke is truly special and haunting, the big shocker is the fact that they kill him off so quickly, but for the screen time he has it is fantastic. Lastly but certainly not least is the late Carrie Fisher as Leia, what can you say other than it was a great performance, has some very powerful moments at times amazing to see.
Negatives.
Oh yes are there some negatives with this film starting with the biggest elephant in the room and that is the humour. Oh wow was there a lot of humour in the film, definitely not what I was expecting and unfortunately for the most part there was just too much of it, Star Wars is not a comedy. However some of the jokes did work and some didn't, overall there was just too much, Disney please tone it down.
The stories and endings of Finn and Captain Phasma, Firstly we spent far too much time on Canto Bight with Finn and not enough time with Captain Phasma. There is a moment when Finn was going to sacrifice himself for the resistance, which would have been a great ending to the character, but was unfortunately saved. That is twice now that the character should have died in back to back films. What a pathetic ending a story of Captain Phasma, she is barely in the film for 10 minutes has the quickest fight with Finn and then has a really cheesy death, what a waste of a character.
Lastly this film is far too long, yes the idea of a 2h 30 min Star Wars film to any fan sounds amazing however there are parts of this film that drag on for far too long, the final act could have easily been trimmed down. Blade Runner 2049 that has run time of 2h 44 min felt shorter than The Last Jedi, not good pacing. This leads me into the last point of the film and the most important, this film is not for everybody. This film is not for the casual fan it might not be for the hardcore fan because it feels the least Star Wars ish, for me that is a positive because the franchise was a bit stale after TFA and Rogue One. This will be an extremely divisive film but I will argue that it is good that they tried to do something different even if not everything worked, I commend the balls that this film has.
Therefore this film is 80% out of 100 and vast improvement from Ep 7 and maybe even better than Rouge One, due to pushing the boundaries and making a unique film that we have seen before. Yes does the film have problems but for me the positives out weigh the negatives. I cant understand how people can criticise this film for not being like the Original trilogy, there will never be another film like those films plain and simple get over it. Yes this is different and that should be embraced, rather than ripped apart because of that and for not answering every minuet detail about itself. One question though, Where do they go from here in Episode 9???