A spiritual continuation of the star wars saga

Rating: 8/10 (15 December 2017)

If George Lucas read a book by Joseph campbell, Rian Johnson read it twice. The Last Jedi picks up where the last film left off and solidifies what is going to be the tone and structure of the new trilogy. Homage is a strong word but the Last Jedi continues to use the foundation of previous trilogies, but where Force Awakens used the original trilogy to get off the ground, Last Jedi uses it to elevate the story and themes. This was the most thematically heavy of the Star Wars movies, spirituality, theology and repetition build into a story that resembles archetypical mythology and legend. George Lucas said of Star Wars that it is an epic poem and each verse rhymes, this is true of the last Jedi. Each callback has payoff and does something to enhance the story. If I were to have one critique it would be of the pacing. Between some of the best action sequences in the Star Wars saga the parts in between can suffer from a lack of momentum. Through and through, this is the next generation of Star Wars, if you disliked Force Awakens, you will probably not enjoy this movie, but based on this I am anticipating great things as the franchise continues.