Improves slightly over the previous film & takes some narrative risks. A little crazy too. 70%

Rating: 7/10 (14 December 2017)

Following on from the previous movie in this final (?) trilogy, whose name escapes me right now (looking it up on Wikipedia now...ah, yes, "Star Wars: Episode VII"...just kidding..."Star Wars: The force awakens"...actually, it just came to me now...I didn't even need to look it up!), we get to find out what happens when our young heroine, Rey (I had to check the spelling of her name on Wikipedia) meets Luke Skywalker, who may prove to be the Resistance's final hope (I had to Wikipedia what they were called...I initially typed "the Alliance") in staving of the wannabe New Empire (The First Order?). Things get complicated between them. The good news is that the film doesn't suck. The bad news is that it doesn't reach any great heights, although it does have more going for it than most of the other films in the series (especially episodes I and II, and, to a lesser extent, episode VII. Of course, there will be battles with the New Empire or whatever they're called. Anyway, I suppose I'll be happy enough to see this trilogy through to the end, as it is improving slightly on each outing. "The last Jedi" was tracking to score about 65% for me, but a little bit of daring on its part as far as what happens to characters goes pushes my score out to a flat 70%. In other words, I liked how the film created certain character expectations and then subverted them.
Okay, to general observations about this film. I mentioned earlier that it doesn't reach any great heights. Why not? Well, part of the problem as you might have observed from my opening paragraph is how forgettable the character's names are, unlike the characters in "A new hope"...or is that just me? Having seen "The force awakens" only once, and when it was originally in cinemas too, most of the new characters' names didn't stick with me, apart from Rey and Kylo Ren. I would mentally thank characters for mentioning the name of those familiar looking characters, e.g. the black Resistance fighter from the previous film...er...Finn. "The last Jedi" has one Resistance character get a lot of screen time and I wondered if that was the bloke who was supposed to be an ace fighter pilot in "The force awakens"...I'm guessing that it was. I wasn't kidding when I said that I couldn't recall the name of the previous movie, until it came to me...or maybe I unconsciously noticed it on a Wikipedia article about "The last Jedi". Maybe it's me, but I just don't find these new characters as iconic as those of the original trilogy.
Another criticism for me is that the trilogy doesn't really feel epic, with a grand narrative arc and a large, historical sweep. It might have elements of that, but it feels more like an exercise in ticking boxes. It looks like the next film is going to wrap-up the trilogy but that will seem as though it's been done very quickly...the events of the previous film and this one seemed to have happened all very quickly...it doesn't really feel like an epic war between the forces of good and evil, with an ebb and flow of fortunes.
As with "The force awakens", this next instalment also relies a lot on gestures. It's kind of like a pretender to the kind of movie that it wants to be. Whereas "A new hope" had those exhilarating moments which excited the audience (and me), "The last Jedi" has characters whooping it up and almost high-fiving each other, as a proxy for the way that film wants the audience to react. Except that I didn't react that way. Then again, I'm not a small boy, like I was when I saw "A new hope". Then again, the largish audience I saw "The last Jedi" with didn't seem to share the joy of the characters either...if they were, they must have been doing it "on the inside", as George Smilovici might have put it. Sure, there is action aplenty in this film, right from the start. However, I just didn't find it particularly engaging...there's certainly not the emotional pay-off you get with "A new hope", especially with Luke Skywalker's flight to the Death Star.
Some positives from the film include that it has humour...at least I found some scenes amusing and had one moment make me laugh out loud...unlike the "humour" of the early Star Wars prequels which I just found cringeworthy, to be honest (Jar Jar Binks, anybody?). On the other hand, it is perhaps sad to see Chewbacca being reduced to comic relief cameo status.
Also interesting was the expansion, perhaps, of The Force lore in Rey's time on the planet where she found Luke Skywalker. That definitely had some narrative intrigue as to what would happen next. However, the relationship between Rey and Luke is in stark contrast to the narrative arc which occurred between Luke and Yoda in "The Empire strikes back".
Random observations:
I can't remember if there was much made of any connection between Kylo Ren and Rey in the previous film, but in this film it is a focus which piques one's interest and does get resolved later in the story. Just by the by, I could have sworn that Kylo Ren is often called "Ben" in this film...I'm not sure if my ears deceived me or I'm missing something which would explain why that happens.
Some things in the film surprised me...there's one scene with Princess Leia which I just found silly...maybe you'll recognise what I mean when you the film. Another scene with Luke Skywalker I just found flat-out crazy, but, on reflection, it's not as crazy as it seems...if it wasn't explained the way that it was, I'd wonder what the scriptwriters were taking as far as illegal substances go.
An early scene has a villain with an English accent, which gives his words a very theatrical air...quite pantomime dialogue, really.
Interestingly, Mark Hamill has credits for two roles in this film! I didn't notice his other role though! For the record, his other credit is for a character called "Dobbu Scay".
The military strategy and capabilities of the Resistance are "interesting" to say the least...and the bad guys do love to tell the good guys how they are going to defeat them...at great length...which is probably not the best thing to do...when time is of the essence!
There are scenes and some dialogue which harks back to earlier films in this franchise...which might perhaps provide some fan service.
The iconic John Williams score at the start of movie seemed to me to be under the influence of valium at times...but maybe I just imagined that?
I did wonder if there was a continuity problem at the end of the film...that boy...how did he know of Luke Skywalker? Is the film pointing to a reboot of the series or another trilogy...like an endless Buddhist cycle?
Lastly, I do wonder if events in the real world will force changes to the original plans for the final in this trilogy. It would be sad if it were so. I would not be against CGI being used to allow certain characters to fulfill their intended narrative arcs, if this wasn't possible in reality.
Anyway, I can't really imagine wanting to rewatch the final trilogy of this series, although I will see how it all ends. Only the original trilogy (episodes IV to VI) had that kind of appeal. There lies the difference.