Nearly perfect

Rating: 8/10 (23 November 2019)

Star Wars: The Last Jedi continues the trilogy and the new characters arches in an exciting, subversive and epic way. The hate for this movie is very surprising. Luke Skywalker returns and adds a level of maturity and nostalgia from previous Star Wars movies. The story is mostly centred around his and Rey's relationship and seeing his characters continuation and how he is sewn into Kylo Rens and his parents Han and Leia's stories after Return of the Jedi is very engaging and brings with it sympathy and an extra layer of hatred and backstory for Ren and Luke. This movie delves very deep into the Force which is interesting to see what actually makes a Jedi a Jedi. Thankfully, Snoke was killed off. This story no longer required him and is much more focused and emotional with the two human leads, Rey and Kylo's dynamic.
The only major flaw with the movie is the unnecessary inclusion of Rose and Admiral Holdo. Her and Finn's partnership was bearable but the movie really detoured from the much more interesting and engaging storyline with Rey and Luke. It all slowed down and felt too low-key. Roses lines about torture were very forced and just came out of nowhere. I'm trying to watch a Star Wars movie here. Holdo wasn't needed and her design and her line delivery was very frustrating. She didn't tell anyone the plan and had nothing to her so when she sacrificed it didn't have the emotional weight that other characters could have had.
The actors all do a terrific job with a great script, particularly Mark Hamill in his final living performance as Luke Skywalker. This movie is a perfect continuation, it leaves room for growth but also gave me enough of them here. The greatest action of any Star Wars movie is present here and is utilised brilliantly with a great score to give Luke a fitting sendoff in truly epic style. It is epic, subversive and actually made me feel for the characters. The cinematography is a massive step up and the Last Jedi uses it brilliantly to explore its themes much more deeply than previous instalments. This is a much more personal Star Wars adventure that explores new areas of the Star Wars universe while expanding the new heroes and villains stories and for the most part being an engaging, beautiful continuation of the newest Star Wars trilogy.