A thoughtful and gorgeous addition to the Star Wars epic

Rating: 8/10 (15 December 2017)

Finally, after two long years, the third trilogy continues in "The Last Jedi" by Rian Johnson. From a writer/director of this calibre I could only expect the most mature Star Wars ever, and I was not disappointed on this end: in this film we finally see some doubt in the sharp distinction between good and evil, a more interesting dinamic between the baddies and the good guys. Rey doubts master Luke, Luke himself hides some shadows in his past that he would like to bury forever, Finn and the newly introduced Rose team up with a guy whose lesson is "Good and Evil are the same: it's just business". One could see this as a common carefree character, but in reality he channels an interesting point made throughout the film: good and evil may not be as different as they seem. Maybe. Because eventually the good guys (kind of) win, and Kylo stays true to his baddie persona, if with some very interesting twists coming along. To this regard, Rian Johnson seems to be playing with fan fictions here, proving all of them wrong even if the solution he finds is not quite as satisfying sometimes. Is it really a good idea to make Rey's parents some nobodies? What about all the threads scattered around in Episode VII that we got crazy to understand? Can it really be the best choice to let it all die this way? Sure, Kylo said that, Rey believes that, but nothing forbids for Ep. IX to change everything on this end. Luke's death is pretty good, although maybe not that necessary. Same goes for Snoke's fate: he was never anything more than a nobody himself? An all-powerful being without any connection to the past of the Sith order? Seems very cheap if you ask me.
If this SW really did something better than all his predecessors, it is to show us what the "Wars" in the title mean: there are so many combat scenes, but they are unusually complex, with great military strategy behind every move and with incredible visual effect on the spectators.
I really loved how some things require some time to be understood: for example, Yoda laughing at Luke's willingness to destroy the tree containing the Books of the Jedi and telling him that Rey already has what she needs to become a Jedi is a great piece of writing, because everything gets a simple, clear explanation later on: she had already taken the books away, with her.
The Last Jedi follows the trend started with Episode VII and continued with Rogue One last year: it's not as groundbreaking as the originals, but it carefully works both with the source material and with new ideas, crafting a very good new entry. The best part are its insightful ideas about shading the line between good and evil; the worst are some writing choices (like Snoke's and Phasma's deaths, two interesting and completely underdeveloped characters).