Not as bad as the prequels, not as good as the original trilogy, somewhere in between...

Rating: Null/10 (9 January 2018)

"Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi", from "Looper" director Rian Johnson, is the latest entry in the "Star Wars" franchise and does it live up to the hype? For me, sadly, this 8th episode was a bit of a disappointment. Sure, it offers some good performances from Daisy Ridley, Mark Hamill and Adam Driver, it has some pretty cool action scenes,the score from John Williams is expectedly good and in my opinion slightly better than the score for "The Force Awakens", the CGI is decent, there's some good camera work and for the 2 hour and 32 minute run time the pacing is not terrible. For me what made "The Last Jedi" a bit of a disappointment was for one thing that it felt all too safe and family friendly. There were moments throughout the film where I thought the filmmakers would take some risks, but just ended up going the predictable and at times cheesy route. There were even a few times where I remember thinking to mysely "Wow, is that actually going to happen?", but then it didn't or something else happened and possible major events were avoided. There wasn't all that much tension throughout the run time either and I left the cinema rather underwhelmed and the film failed to leave an impact. Despite really wanting to love the film considering I'm a "Star Wars" fan myself, I just couldn't really wrap my head around the overly long 152 minute run time and the needless sub-plots, especially the side quest with Finn that constantly slowed down the pace, took up way too much time and overall just didn't need to be there. The comedy doesn't always work and is mostly child-oriented, especially the introduction to the creatures found on the Ahch-To island known as "Porgs" that are basically there to boost merchandise sales and don't really play into the story much at any point. Another thing that surprised me was how much Princess Leia Organa, played by Carrie Fisher (Rest In Peace) in her last portrayal of the character, didn't have to do with the story. Aside from 1-2 short scenes, Leia was, in my opinion, kind of wasted and could've been utilized a lot more. Talking about the supporting cast, there aren't any standouts, the best performances are definitely those from Ridley, Hamill and Driver, the rest just aren't as strong, new characters don't leave an impact and returning characters were more enjoyable to watch in "The Force Awakens". Negatives aside, I still think you can watch "The Last Jedi", it isn't a complete failure, it has its entertaining moments and is enjoyable to watch (especially with friends and/or the family) if you're not expecting too much and there are definitely some funny moments and homages to the older films that will probably make fans crack a smile. It's clear that Rian Johnson is a big fan of the franchise and wants to make the best kind of "Star Wars" film that he can, but in comparison to J.J. Abrams's previous effort, I think "The Last Jedi" just doesn't hold up. All in all, I'm kind of disappointed with "Star Wars: The Last Jedi", maybe it was due to the high expectations I had for the film, but it just didn't do it for me. It felt way too family friendly, the subplots are mostly unnecessary and could have been easily cut out, the film isn't that rewatchable and it just seemed a bit rushed to name a few things. The scenes between Rey, Luke Skywalker and Kylo Ren were definitely the most interesting to watch in the entire film and those actors definitely gave the best performances. The action scenes were also entertaining with the decent camera work and CGI, but I feel the majority of the film was overall still just rather lackluster and played it too safe. The supporting cast isn't as strong as the main cast and some of the interesting plot points established in the previous film, for example where and who Rey's parents are, feel like they are just thrown away in this sequel. Although not quite as terrible as the prequels, this is definitely not one of the best "Star Wars" films to ever come out and I would say it's pretty much as good as "Rogue One", if not, a little better.