We Are What They Grow Beyond. That is the True Burden of All Masters.

Rating: 8/10 (15 December 2017)

It's incredibly difficult to write a regular review for a film like this without spoiling anything. So I'm going to come right out and say that this will be a SPOILER heavy review. Last warning.
So there's a lot to unpack with The Last Jedi. Unlike The Force Awakens, I had slightly different feelings on The Last Jedi upon second viewing. This is far from the rapidly paced and fun feel of The Force Awakens a few years ago. Which, on one hand, is an exciting new territory for this universe to explore. Rian Johnson certainly makes some homages to the films that came before, but this definitely takes the direction of the series into a bold new direction. And there are some seriously bold things Johnson does in this movie. However, on the other-hand, I loved the tone and feel of TFA in 2015 so much that I was taken aback with The Last Jedi's choices after my first watch.
But let's get right into a more detailed conversation. The film picks up with a pretty thrilling space battle as The First Order is closing in on taking down the last bits of The Resistance/Republic. This is where we find Poe Dameron, who notably didn't get a lot of screen time in The Force Awakens, gets plenty of time to shine here. He becomes the source for where we get a lot of the political/strategic/military decisions with him, Leia, and newbie Vice Admiral Holdo. Out of the few new faces we see in The Last Jedi, I thought Laura Dern's performance as Holdo was probably the one I appreciated the most. Ultimately, these scenes could have been better character builders for Poe and Leia, but alas Leia was sidelined for a good portion of the movie after nearly dying. Being that Carrie Fisher suddenly passed away last year, I would have liked to have seen more of her in this go around. Though I will say the moment she gets to use the force and bring herself back into the ship was a nice scene that I never thought I would get.
Meanwhile, Finn and other new character, Rose, are on a mission of their own to find a codebreaker to sneak them onto Snoke's ship and disable the trackers for the Rebel's ships (or some sort of technical thing). The point being that this whole side arc is easily the weakest aspect of the film by far. Finn, who was such a fresh presence in TFA and played so nicely alongside Rey, has nice chemistry with Rose, but these scenes are ultimately pointless. You can cut this entire sequence out of the film and still have the essentials amidst a quicker and more fluid film-going experience. The only reason to even keep them in the film is to set up the broom-boy at the end who can apparently use the force, which in itself was a hugely problematic reveal at the end of the film. I'm telling you, these scenes nearly killed the film at that particular point in the runtime. Luckily, we had absolutely incredible moments that followed.
While all of that was going on, Rey tried her best to lure Luke Skywalker back into the fight against the dark side as he spends his last days on a lonely Island with Porgs. Everything with Rey, Luke, and/or Kylo Ren in this film was pure gold. I love seeing Luke be amazed over Rey's raw power and Rey desperately try to persuade Luke into returning. Their training sequences and moments of intimate dialogue rest as some of the best the series has ever bolstered. Mix that in with a brilliantly timed callback to the "help me Obi-Wan Kenobi" scene, and a surprisingly effective cameo from the Jedi Master Yoda, made for some all-time great Star Wars singular scenes.
Going along with that was the expansion of the Jedi and force mythos. For the most part, I loved the way this film expanded that lore, whether that be with Rey and Kylo using the force to communicate with each other or even Luke using the force to fake teleport. It was all fantastic and deepened the mythology for J.J. Abrams to further explore in Episode IX. Daisy Ridley is magnetic as Rey, who turns out to be child of no one particular of note (which I liked). And Adam Driver, who I had mixed feelings about in TFA, I thought portrayed an emotionally damaged villain very well. There's still those moments of occasional unnecessary yelling with him, but I feel much better about him now than I did a few years back.
Which brings me to the insanely bold choices from Johnson/Lucasfilm of killing off both Snoke and Luke in this film. The scene in which Rey and Kyle team up to take down Snoke is Star Wars twists at its best. The slow motion shot of the two of them back to back fighting off Snoke goons was terrific. Only to be complemented by another twist with Kylo staying on the dark side and recruiting Rey. Absolutely loved that entire sequence. Luke's death was an interesting one because I still feel like there's a missed opportunity by never having a scene with him and Snoke together, or really just giving anything else in terms of Snoke's backstory, but it's hard to think of a more emotionally satisfying end to the legend of Luke Skywalker.
I'm a bit torn on the humor, sometimes it really works sometimes it really doesn't. The middle act trudges along because of an out of place social message sequence which doesn't add anything to the film overall. And there's about 10 times this film could have ended. Those are my 3 gripes and it's difficult to even put into a number what those weaknesses mean for the score I'm going to give it. But The Last Jedi is a bold film and likely one that will continue to grow on me upon viewing 3, 4, etc. It will be very interesting to see where Episode IV take us, but these are my initial thoughts.
9.0/10