Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017) User Reviews

Slowly over the last year, my distaste for this film has increased

[FairlyAnonymous · 5/10 · 19 November 2018]

I'm going to open my review with this note: I did not make up any theories for The Last Jedi. I didn't spend time looking up theories. I didn't have any real plot expectations. I didn't watch any of the trailers because I didn't want the premise spoiled to me. I say this because I know a lot of people who discredit reviewers who disliked the movie because "the only reason you didn't like the film is because your fan theories were ruined." While this may apply to some people, it does not apply to me.

That being said: This movie is pretty bad.

Back in 2015 I saw The Force Awakens and felt very underwhelmed, "This is what they are doing with Star Wars? A page by page retelling of episode IV?" So I was hoping for the next movie to be more of its own thing, which, fortunately, it is. The Last Jedi (for the most part) is its own unique premise and while it has chunks from Episode VI thrown into it and a few elements from Episode V, but the movie as a whole feels like its very own idea.

The main issues with this film fall into four different categories that I think most people can agree with are the core issues with the film. 1. Bad Pacing 2. Big Plot Holes 3. Incoherent Theming 4. Not Understanding the Star Wars Universe

1. Bad Pacing: This film is long. About 30-45 minutes too long. The movie tries to juggle one too many plot threads at the same time and probably should've scrapped the Canto Bight plot altogether to reduce its run-time and to make a much more satisfying film.

The mistake with Canto Bight is actually an odd one that I haven't any other recent films do. In movies, the main goal is to move the plot forward. Character do actions to make stuff happen, but with The Last Jedi the whole Canto Bight arc goes two steps forward and then two steps back so you end up right where you started. Finn and Rose go on a Plan B mission to help save their fleet, they find a hacker, go to disable the enemy tracking device, get caught, and then learn that their mission was pointless the whole time and they go back to Plan A. It is just filler... 30-45 minutes worth of filler.

To make matter worse for this side-plot, the filler isn't even that good. I know some people have taken great offense to how "anti-capitalist" the Canto Bight story arc was, and while it obviously does have a bit of that going on I don't think it is really that bad. The main issue is Rose and Finn's morals seem a bit mixed up where they decide to free racing animals (that look a bit like The Last Guardian) and don't decide to free the actual slaves. It's a bit odd that they stop to try and "help people" but it comes across as rather redundant.

This naturally brings us to the next issue...

2. Plot Holes: This movie has a one glaring plot hole which connects to the pacing issues: Why didn't Holdo tell her crew what her plan was? There is no logical explanation for why she didn't inform anyone as to what her plan was and only left everyone to think that they were on a suicide mission. Some people have defended this plot point by saying, "Po was demoted so she didn't need to tell him." Yes, but he was demoted to Captain... that's still a high-ranking position. Also, we can clearly see that no one else knows of the plan and the rest of the crew seem to be shaking in their boots. If Holdo had simply whispered to him the plan, there would be: No mutiny, No Canto Bight, and about one hour less movie. The fact that such a large chunk of this movie revolves around such an obvious and glaring plot hole is rather astounding. Did no one notice this when writing the film?

There are many other mini plot-holes, but those tie into the Star Wars lore so I will bring those up later.

Moving on...

3. Incoherent Theming: This movie doesn't really know what it is trying to say, and there is one scene that best sums up this issue and it is the scene where Yoda and Luke are talking to each other. Luke wants to destroy the ancient Jedi books because he is mad at the arrogance of the Jedi (granted, that's true, but they aren't as bad as the Sith who are trying to murder everyone) and Yoda actually aids him in doing it via Jedi Ghost lightning powers. A new trick and a bit comical.

The issue with this scene is that Yoda says "real page-turners, are they not?" basically saying that the books are boring and thus it is okay for them to destroyed. Luke even seems to admit that he hasn't even read them. With this, the movie seems to be saying, "It is okay to destroy the past if it isn't very interesting or culturally relevant to you at the moment" which is one of THE STUPIDEST MESSAGES TO PUT INTO A FILM. Destroy historical relics and books because you don't like them or find them boring? You know who does that? Terrorist organizations. Nazis. Corrupt and evil regimes. Also, the movie has clearly established that there is a race of fish-nuns who have dedicated thousands of years of their history to protecting Jedi relics. It is not within Luke's power to choose if they are destroyed or not as he is not the keeper of them. This is the equivalent of someone running into a monastery and burning all the bibles because, "I was a Christian at one point, but now I'm not so I get the right to burn everything here.".

To make matters worse, we then discover that Rey has STOLEN the books which then makes Yoda's speech to Luke irrelevant. So which is it? Is protecting the past important or is it okay to destroy it? You can't have both.

This movie is packed with inconsistencies like this so it is very hard to find a clear and consistent message. I understand it is trying to be deep, complex, and a bit gray, but it never really works.

4. Not Understanding the Star Wars Universe: A lot of people have ranted about this issue while others have dismissed it as "well it's just a movie so it doesn't have to make sense". There is some merit on both sides, but ultimately there are some pretty big inconsistencies in this movie with the rest of the Star Wars franchise. a. No shields: Yes, this sounds rather petty, but the Dreadnought at the beginning of the film was almost completely taken down by an X-Wing... how? Where are its shields? Every other Star Wars movie has made a plot-point about how Star Destroyers and large cruisers have shields (heck, even the main plot of this movie is about a ship losing its shields). The whole intro scene that shows a single pilot taking out a large ship because "it is flying too close for us to hit" makes no sense. The whole point of anti-spacecraft turrets is to destroy ships nearby and the whole point of shields is to make sure ships can't get that close and to also negate damage. This scene feels ridiculous when every movie has clearly established this point.

b. Hyperspace-Ramming: I know the scene is very beautiful and nice to look at it, but it causes a ton of issues in the Star Wars Universe. The issue isn't so much about being able to drive a ship into another ship as a last resort (that makes sense) the main issue is its effectiveness level. This maneuver is so effective that it manages to destroy Snoke's main ship along with taking out most of his fleet.

Here is a simple analogy of what this scene does to the Star Wars universe: Imagine if Spider-Man was in a desperate struggle in a battle against Carnage and the audience thinks he is going to lose. It is very intense, but then all of a sudden Spider-man opens his palms and then vaporizes Carnage with a blast of radioactive energy! Spider-man explains, "Well of course I've always had this ability. I was bitten by a radioactive spider, was I not?" For Spider-man to do this in a film would be incredibly stupid and unsatisfying. He has had this power the entire time throughout all of the movies that can end any battle at any moment, but just has never decided to use it until now? Why hasn't all of his battles revolved around him using this? Why does he ever lose?

That is essentially what Hyperspace-Ramming does to Star Wars. It isn't that the concept doesn't make sense, but it is that it is such an overpowered maneuver that all other forms of space combat pale in comparison. There is no reason to be using lasers when you could have hyperspace-ramming blocks, missiles, or heck, Holdo's entire plan from the get-go should've been to use that maneuver. Why didn't the other cruise ships use that maneuver before they got blasted? See, even within the context of this film, everyone should've been using hyperspace-ramming at every chance they got. There is no reason not to.

c. Rey's Incredible Power Gain: I know a lot of people have called Rey a "Mary Sue". For those who don't know, a Mary Sue is a female character (originating from a parody of fan-fictions) who becomes obscenely powerful within the context of the universe with little to no explanation and then meets all of the cast of the said series usually as a mean of the author inserting themselves within the story. Rey is overpowered with seemingly no explanation, but she doesn't seem to be a tool to insert the writer into the narrative and meeting the original Star Wars cast was going to happen regardless of the gender of the protagonist.

Still, this movie only takes place within hours or so of the first movie. Rey has had no training, no real force experience, and no real combat training, and by the end of the movie she is moving hundreds of boulders with little to no effort (something that we haven't even seen Yoda do) and taking on a whole armed guard with her light saber skills. To put it simply: She went from no knowledge in the force to becoming more powerful than Yoda in a matter of two days or so. Adding to this frustration is the fact that Kylo Ren who has trained extensively under Luke and Snoke (the two most powerful force users until Rey) for almost all of his life... has almost no skill.

Inconclusion: This review was going to be a lot longer, but I hit the IMDb word limit... I was going to bring up "subverting expectations"...

Entertaining, but ultimately confused and

[robbyvil · 5/10 · 14 December 2017]

Very surprised that the critics gave this a thumbs up. It's possibly among the worst Star Wars movies (including the prequels). It's entertaining, for sure, but in the way David and Jerry Zucker films of the 80's were crowd pleasers. This isn't something you go home thinking about or affecting you when you go home, at least in a good way.

The problem as I see it is that it tried to tackle too much in one movie. Worst, it spent so much time on unimportant (and seemingly inconsequential) events and not enough time on the bigger questions that were left hanging from TFA. The story structure is a mess. The Finn/Rose subplot could've been totally removed, and the new characters introduced were a waste of time.

Characterizations were very inconsistent. Characters who had already grown in TFA (Finn, Poe) suddenly regressed for no reason. Major characters (Rey, Kylo, Luke) would make surprising moves without any basis or set-up, for the sake of surprise. In fact a lot of the movie can be said as favoring a "twist" happening at the expense of consistent character development. The prequel movies' treatment of Anakin's character development was a lot more satisfying, AND that's a generally panned. At least the prequel movies' story tried in earnest, TLJ did worst that just phoning it in.

As some movies have become acclaimed films over time after an initial bashing by the critics (e.g. Bladerunner), this one I believe will take the opposite direction.

Here's hoping JJ fixes everything with IX.

A Betrayal, and not a Star Wars film

[neil-476 · 5/10 · 2 May 2018]

The New Order has the Republic, now the Rebellion, on the run. General Leia Organa's small resistance force has been discovered. Their only hope is Force-newbie Rey finding hermit-like Luke Skywalker and persuading him to pass on his Jedi knowledge to a new generation.

I must start by saying that I hate togive spoilers, but it is difficult to assess this film fairly without doing so to some extent. The Force Awakens, episode VII, was a huge commercial success, but was - fairly - accused of revisiting the story from A New Hope. Does episode VIII avoid that accusation? Up to a point. You don't have to look too closely to see echoes of The Empire Strikes Back, though.

The Force Awakens successfully passed the torch to a new generation, but left many unanswered questions. The Last Jedi opens with a terrific action set-piece - dammit, Poe IS a hotshot flyboy! - but then we want to have some questions answered. Who is Rey and why is she connected to the Force? Why did Kylo Ren turn rogue? Who is Snoke? How did his connection to the Force arise? Why does he have those hideous scars? How did he get his hooks into Ren? What does Finn do next? This film addresses NONE of these questions except in the most unsatisfactory way.

It provides spectacular visuals which, of course, we expect. It gives us a host of cute aliens, robots, and tech generally. It gives us some humour. This is unusual for a Star Wars film. It would be welcome if it were not generally so misplaced. It does not help the film to have the evil General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson) portrayed as a slapstick bumbling buffoon.

The Last Jedi has two egregious faults. The first is narrative sloppiness. This is especially noticeable in the casino heist/Benicio del Toro sequence which is completely inconsequential and irrelevant. It should never have been part of the film. It goes nowhere, adds nothing and, with minimal rewriting, could have been cut. The film would still have run over two hours, but a good deal less than its bloated 153 minutes. The film is not well-paced.

The second flaw is a wilful re-writing of Luke Skywalker's character. Luke has always been a hero, even when he was a callow, inexperienced youth. To revise him into someone who turns his back on doing the Right Thing, notwithstanding the provocation, is a betrayal of the audience. We have invested much in this character, over many years, and this is not playing fair with us.

Oh, and while we're at it, John Boyega must be hugely disappointed: Finn was hardly in it.

In short, the narrative does not flow well, the story is underwhelming, we don't get the answers we wanted to questions, and characters are inconsistent with earlier versions. And, as a result, The Last Jedi is a disappointment.

A parody of a Star Wars film.

[obivin · 5/10 · 15 November 2018]

Mediocre story. Mediocre acting. Mediocre action. Just all around mediocrity. And throwing away all of the intriguing questions raised by The Force Awakens and not asking any new ones doesn't bode well for IX.

STAR WARS S3E2

[passenger70 · 5/10 · 14 December 2017]

So our resistant heroes continue their fight against the Second Empire. Not much really happens unless you consider killing off various characters significant. (Admiral Ackbar!!) No real answers or explanations to any of Abrams "mystery box" storytelling. Who's Snoke? Dunno. Who's Rey? Nobody. Long winded and filled with awkward humour (Luke milking a thing) and pointless adventures. (Finn's trip to a space casino which ends up accomplishing exactly nothing) Filled with confusing story telling where characters turn bad (or good) and back again for no reason and people show up out of the blue with no explanation as to how they got there. (How did Rey meet up with Chewie again?) Like Han in the last film Luke is really only in it to pass the torch and is just treated in an embarrassing manner. Strangely Leia survives and I'm expecting her to be written out in the opening crawl for the next one. These new movies are written in a TV variety style where characters and things show up for a round of applause and then go away.( "And now...heeeeeres YODA!) These new movies are more in the style of the Star Wars Holiday Special than the original movies. Frankly it's just weird. (P.S. the Harry Potter-esque final scene was the most Un-Star Wars scene ever)

A disgraceful and tricky attempt to conform a franchise

[CineNihilist · 5/10 · 29 July 2018]

Star Wars The Last Jedi is a failure as a film and as an episode of a saga. All the plot and the subplots set on the previous films, were built for nothing.

In fact, this film destroies all the potential storylines in the name of the Disney's morals that are forced to put into in the Last Jedi. The result is a complete mess like a lot of plot holes, pointless characters, useless storylines, a cringy humour and a lazy characterization.

So summing up, now we are certain of one thing: this sequel trilogy is garbage with better visual effects. Disney and Lucasfilm have no idea how to continue the Star Wars saga. So for now, I lose any interests in this ruined franchise...

hell-bent on dissapointment

[frodo_unplugged · 5/10 · 20 April 2018]

After seeing The Last Jedi at the cinema last December and being somewhat underwhelmed I was stunned to find out yesterday how little replay value this newest installment in the sprawling space saga holds. I literally couldn't make it through that dragging excuse of a story. Everything the rebellion does is either downright stupid or totally in vain or both. It's a long drawn out exercise in failure peppered with too many bits of comic relief and incessant soulsearching. The prequels were lacking in almost every respect, but at least I enjoyed revisiting them from time to time, they were fun, the storyteller's intentions seemed honest. Not so with the sequels, especially The Last Jedi. It's not only downbeat and endlessly meandering but also mean spirited in its attitude towards the source material. It's willfully disappointing viewer's expectations in the crudest and often least original way possible. You start to choke as if Vadder himself was extending his force grip over the audience. It's all so pointless and half-hearted. The rebellion gets decimated to literally a handful people, but it all seems to be fun and games for the characters, even the bad guys, with a lot of naive pep talk about the spark of the resistance thrown in every ten minutes or so. It's like the director undertook to disappoint viewer's expectations so radically, that we the audience end up with nothing but this choking feeling of disappointment. In fact, the narrative strategy forever flip-flops between those failed expectations and the constant lip service that is paid to the loyal fanbase. It's a schizophrenic experience, one that I'm not too keen to repeat because it leaves the distinct impression that a product is being sold here.

No

[daeglasi · 5/10 · 19 December 2019]

I really want to like this movie, but I just can't

a big disappointment

[dimitrisleegers · 5/10 · 27 June 2018]

I gave it a 5/10 cause the movie wasn't bad. It was just bad compared to what one would expect from such a million dollar project. I liked the ending and some things in between, the locations and visuals were great. BUT it is NOT a good movie, the writing leaves much to be said about it. The buildup from the previous movie was for naught, there were so many things thrown in at random without getting explained what it actually was. People showing up at random at the exact perfect spot for them to be in. Others giving the spotlight for about one minute or less before getting blasted to pieces. The major 'moves' the movie made were unrealistic and predictable even for a science fiction movie. And so on...

I hope they learn from this experience and make the last movie better.

Big gaps in the story, bad jokes and overlength

[vincentgiller · 5/10 · 18 January 2019]

The last Jedi ist the worst star wars experience i've ever had. After the force awakens there were alot of open questions and i had a lot of hope for the next movie. But Star Wars 8 was a big disappointment. The good storylines created in Part 7 got ignored in the last jedi. Alot of really unfunny jokes like the Iron in the Base of the First Order... wtf guys?! The little crappy animals which are only good for merchandising or the your mother - joke ... Earlier Star Wars did not try to make bad jokes ... the jokes were more decent... they came in the situtions and the dialogues. Luke Skywalker.... maybe The Last Jedi was the best performance from Mark Hamill... but he really can not change a bad story. Luke Skywalker... the man who did NEVER lost the hope in his father Darth Vader ... want to kill his nephew while he is sleeping????? Because there COULD BE darknes in his soul? Please guys... Another thing... the bombers right after the movie started... this slow and completely useles ~things~ need to fly over the enemy to DROP (not possible in space?!) the bombs??? Some Years ago the were some Y-Wings... maybe the should take some inspiration from George ..

Episode 9 will be my last hope

A kid playing with toys.

[ethanlee42 · 5/10 · 10 January 2019]

That's what this movie amounted to.

A child sitting on his floor, holding action figures in his hands, murmuring indecipherable dialogue, hammering the toys together and throwing them across the room.

I'm not going to even dip into the utter destruction of the remaining nostalgia in this movie, I'm sure that's been covered countless times.

Who says "hey, let's make a movie where the A plot involves being chased across the galaxy until the heroes run out of fuel! Then, we'll take one of the most breathtaking scenes in Star Wars and give the honors to a tertiary character!"

This movie does have one of the best lightsaber battles in a stacked category. It has the single most awe-inspiring scene in the whole pantheon. The visuals are stunning at every turn.

But it's a vapid, spiteful entry into the Canon in the end. I don't like to speak ill of films. But this one, for whatever reason, irked me.

There is nothing new!

[srivardhanms · 5/10 · 31 December 2018]

There is nothing new the movie. Even the jokes are old!

Worst Star Wars movie to date

[superflaze7 · 5/10 · 24 November 2019]

A lot of things don't make sense in this movie (ie. Luke's story arc), nothing really happens in this film, you can pretty much just skip it and hope Episode IX will be worth watching. Definitely not a fan of Rian Johnson.

Not for me

[lommeastrayer · 5/10 · 27 February 2019]

I loved Solo. Saying that so you know I don't just hate everything like so many people on here these days. Gone are the times when this was a forum for genuine criticism and thought. Now it's all just hate.

Yes, I wasn't a big fan of this one, but that's ok. What i'm not going to do is say that no one else should like it, and that if you do you're an idiot.

Everyone should be allowed to like or dislike what they want, but it should be left to us to do it responsibly and with thought to the people who spend years on these movies.

But we're living in selfish times. I think IMDb should shut down the user reviews and let the professionals do their job; a job most of them study for and have a knowledge base of thousands of movies to call on to fully critique a new movie.

The Worst Jedi

[Fluke_Skywalker · 5/10 · 17 December 2017]

If The Force Awakens was a bit too adherent to the classic Star Wars formula, Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi is its equal and opposite reaction. JJ Abrams' effort often felt like a young boy putting on his Dad's coat, splashing on his cologne and trying in vain to mimic the old man's booming baritone voice. Rian Johnson's entry is the same kid a few years later, willfully eschewing everything that is his Father. The Last Jedi doesn't look like a Star Wars film. Hell, it rarely feels like a Star Wars film. Sure it's got familiar faces, space battles and Force mumbo jumbo, but this ain't your Father's Star Wars, and I think that's the point. The look and feel of this film is synergistic with its message. This is no longer Han, Luke and Leia's show. Perhaps more importantly, it's no longer George Lucas'. This is Star Wars: The Next Generation, and I don't like. Not at all.

There are some truly great moments in the morass that is the painfully overlong The Last Jedi. Moments worthy of the saga that has been my constant companion since I first saw the original film as a wide eyed 3 year old in the late Summer of 1977. But these are few and fleeting, and no salve for the gapping wound it left in me. I realize now that for me, the Star Wars saga consists of three films. Star Wars (because for me it will always be Star Wars), The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. And I can even still enjoy the prequel trilogy despite glaring flaws, because at its core are the same basic fundamentals and the DNA of the same architect. What Disney and its minions have done is take someone else's toys and played the game their way. That's fine. But I don't have to watch.

Porgs are cool. The Last Jedi is not.

[pootc · 5/10 · 14 December 2017]

Be aware - spoilers ahead.

Porgs are cool. The Last Jedi is not. It is very disappointing movie for somebody looking for answers to really anything Star Wars lore. It has some good moments but after The Force Awakens left viewers such a high-note with the return of the Luke Skywalker - I left feeling empty and wondering if they just should have left it all alone.

The legend of the rebellion and childhood hero for so many Luke Skywalker is a broken man who unfortunately has not learned too much in his time in exile. Something that really puzzles me here is that there are no new revelations about the force as one would expect, especially by somebody in exile with unlimited time, power and the potential to learn.

We're treated to a great performance by Mark Hamill but I wanted Luke Skywalker to be great. He is the hero of the Original Trilogy, by far the most revered and loved and he gets a moment, sure, but it merely serves as an opportunity to 'pass the torch' to the younger cast and it seems so contrived and obvious.

This is all made worse by the real-life passing of Carrie Fisher who plays Princess Leia who seems much more comfortable in her role than in The Force Awakens.

I must admit I had really high hopes for this film, for nostalgic reasons and as much as I really liked the characters in The Force Awakens it's the original characters who we all fell in love with and seeing them treated like this is - as means to simply pass the torch to younger actors is really disappointing. The Force Awakens did it right with Han Solo because it elevated Kylo Ren's villain status enormously.

The problem is that the Rey and Luke dynamic needed to be fleshed out way more. We needed more revelations about the true nature of the force, how it began, something new and we got nothing even though Luke has his hands on the first ever Jedi texts and scrolls, it seems like he hasn't read them because we get absolutely no real insight into what they say. How disappointing is that considering he is in exile? What else has he got to do? I found this totally, utterly frustrating beyond belief.

More wasted opportunities lie with some of the characters. Supreme Leader Snoke's characters 'moment' was a shocking but empty. We got no backstory and nothing clever to bind the saga together. He is literally just a 'bad guy' that just appears out of nowhere and corrupts young Ben Solo, aka Kylo Ren.

Captain Phasma is another throwaway character with nothing to do at all as is General Hux, who just provides comic relief and then there is Rey's parentage which becomes the ultimate disappointment in this story. Another aspect that just left me feeling empty and unsatisfied.

Oscar Isaac's ace pilot Poe Dameron is back and joined by Laura Dern playing newcomer Admiral Holdo. Their story is one of the best side stories that completely pays off. I loved Poe Dameron's energy and enthusiasm in this just like I loved Finn's in The Force Awakens.

Unfortunately Finn's journey is far less compelling now. He is joined by actress Kelly Marie Tran who plays Rose Tico and a friendship, possible romance ensues but it's all very cliche and nothing to write home about nor is the much hyped Canto Bight scenes which resemble something more out of a Harry Potter movie than Star Wars.

The other dynamic is Rey and Kylo Ren's relationship which does manage to keep you guessing for a time. Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley are again, really good in their respective roles but it's not enough to save the story from feeling like a lost opportunity to tie the Skywalker story (the Star Wars story we all fell in love with) together in a satisfying package. I think Disney have tried to throw one too many curve balls and they're way off. I remember leaving The Force Awakens with so much optimism and I wish it were different but essentially I feel that there is nowhere else to go. We've left in the middle of the desert without a tank of gas at the conclusion of The Last Jedi.

When Star Wars meets Disney

[matt-turner-98-577296 · 5/10 · 13 December 2017]

Watched the movie at midnight screening with my 13 year old daughter. The first thing the struck me was the use of humour, far beyond anything we have seen in the SW franchise before. The opening scenes with X-Wing vs Star Destroyer "being put on hold" was bordering on farce IMO. There were a few incidents like this that felt forced attempts to lighten the mood. Secondly are the Disney merch team now heavily involved? The number of new cuddly aliens introduced in this movie 3-4 at least, I can see them all appearing at Disney stores near you in the not too distant future.

The movie itself felt like a series of short stories, that didn't join up particularly well with average writing, lots of plot devices we've seen many times before. Lazy writing IMO. As has been said on other threads far too many characters introduced and expecting the audience to have immediate attachments to them just didn't work, Rose for example.

On the plus side the visual effects were stunning, as were the fight scenes and some of the acting was excellent in the scenes between Luke and Rei.

Unfortunately modern movie making appears to be formulaic and designed to appeal to the masses, which I'm sure this will. It's safe, doesn't deliver anything different and overall pretty average...I'm sure the Disney execs will be patting themselves on the back for this one - 5/10.

Corny

[pretzylboy · 5/10 · 29 June 2018]

Too many one liners. Opening scene destroyed the whole movie. How did Leia survive space? Ridiculous.

Made me reevaluate my opinions about TFA

[katen-69079 · 5/10 · 9 April 2018]

Man oh man. I really really disliked this movie. I was so annoyed I reevaluated my feelings about TFA. What i thought was a "first clumsy step" was actually the building blocks for a wrecking.

The plot is stretched so hard you can see the holes. Wait who am i kidding, the holes are stretched so hard that they start creating their own plot.

This movie's mainly about fan-service, but the kind that leaves you a bad taste in your sad mouth. Don't even get me started on Yoda's appearance, effects are terrible and it adds nothing. Yeah, the infamous "homage".

The last Jedis' actions make no sense whatsoever, they end up butchering Luke's character that was built during the trilogy. Scrap the "mature" and "forgiving" Skywalker, you're now the dumb Anakin v2. Rey is kind of fine even if she has many useless scenes (ex the "dark side cavern"). Also, why did they kill off the main villain that's shown to have tremendous power (yeah no explanation of this either) so easily? Was it to prove that "arrogance makes you blind"? But he's clearly shown to win in a similar situation 2 minutes before...

Not that it would have mattered if balanced and done correctly but you're always reminded that the oppressed/minorities are the good guys. And the classic rich people are also those who beat children and animals. The only character that comes to challenged this manichean organisation turns out to be a douche/villain and his point is automatically invalidated. And it gets really annoying really fast because it's forced like hell. Way to go, movie, that's an easy 99% on RT.

Also it feels like there's absolutely no risk for the main characters. Only no-names die, or are harmed, the heroes don't bleed once. And then you have Leia who survives a huge blast (that killed everyone else in the room)+ 5 minutes floating in spaces but comes back a few hours later like nothing happened. Then you have the GoT-esque time paradoxes where nearly-destroyed spaceships that fly in circles manage to catch up with ok ships that fly in straight lines at full capacity.

The good parts ? The acting is good for the most part. The new Force power that lets you communicate and project your feeling on long distances. Maybe the anime shot of Hodo's sacrifice, that took me out of the movie but looked at least different.

TL;DR : 20% watchable, 10% enjoyable, 70% rehashed garbage that RT will praise

Hopefully the Last Jedi

[sean_j-43236 · 5/10 · 10 April 2018]

Disappointed! This movie took everything thing I loved about Star Wars and told me it didn't matter. Everything is a joke in this movie. Kerry Fisher did not get a proper send off nor did Luke!

The death of a franchise.

[lnvicta · 5/10 · 19 January 2020]

The Last Jedi is a well-made film; it's visually stunning and well directed. The problem is that it singlehandedly ruined the sequel trilogy by closing the second chapter with a dead end. There are truly baffling character decisions, awkward humor, useless subplots - it's by far the most frustrating Star Wars movie because of the potential it had. If it were 20 minutes shorter, it could have been something special, but the last act sees our characters in the exact same spot as they began. As a standalone movie, it's watchable. As the second part of a trilogy, it's a disaster.

Please, please, please...

[verbal_666 · 5/10 · 2 April 2018]

Stop destroying a Real Cult of Movie Culture!!! STOP!!! We can't, who went in 70ies to watch S.W. Saga in cinemas, keep on tolerate this pieces of junk, made for teenagers, with no plot logic, no real pathos, something between Indipendence Days and B-Movies. PLEASE, STOP!!!!! May the Force be with US ALL, and We need it, watching this boom-boom-action S.W. clones :-(

Different For The Sake Of Being Different

[CinemaClown · 17 March 2018]

Star Wars: The Force Awakens was a cinematic event unlike anything. The buzz it created from the moment its first teaser went live resulted in a blockbuster release that shattered many box-office records during its theatrical run and gave the fans & newcomers their money's worth of big-budget extravaganza. It was also the first Star Wars film that I actually enjoyed watching.

The onus was now on Rian Johnson who was entrusted with the next episode in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. There's no denying that the middle chapter is always the hardest but where many detractors complained that The Force Awakens didn't do anything different from the norm, what Johnson does here is only gonna make them wish they could take it all back.

Set in a galaxy far, far away, Star Wars: The Last Jedi (also known as Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi) follows two simultaneously unfolding storylines. One concerns Rey who has finally found Luke Skywalker who helps her develop her newly discovered abilities. The other segment follows The First Order that has the Resistance on its last legs.

Written & directed by Rian Johnson (best known for Looper), The Last Jedi deviates a tad too far from the course in its attempt to do something different. Full of pacing & tonal issues, Episode VIII is a convoluted mess from start to finish but what sucks about it is that most of its shortcomings were easily rectifiable, all it needed was more refined script & tighter editing.

Another issue is that it fails to integrate new characters into its universe. Add to that, there is an entire subplot that it could have done without. The humour is jarring & falls flat most times. There is no consistency between its flow of events. And some decisions make no sense whatsoever. There is nothing wrong in taking a different route as long as it all adds up and in this film's case, it doesn't.

Coming to the acting department, the best performance comes from Mark Hamill who plays Luke Skywalker better than he ever did before. Daisy Ridley builds on her last act to deliver another strong performance as Rey, Adam Driver embraces the dark side as Kylo Ren, and the chemistry between him & Rey carries a spark. Amongst the new additions, Kelly Marie Tran as Rose is absolutely cringeworthy.

On an overall scale, Star Wars: The Last Jedi fails to make the most of the strong foundation that was provided to it by The Force Awakens, and is a disappointing episode that suffers from Rian Johnson's unfocused direction & unrefined script. Somewhere within this film lies a highly gripping & endlessly riveting adventure fantasy that would've satisfied most. Biting off more than it can chew, Star Wars: The Last Jedi is different for the sake of being different.

WTF This was supposed to be Star Wars

[togdrivingace · 5/10 · 14 April 2019]

Can we please get light sabers that actually work and better choreographed scenes like n literally all of the prequel look at the tracing in flipping the phantom menace the amount of training that went into those scenes was a lot and light sabers that will cut limbs off and do more damage to the human/alien species for the love of god please

Holes everywhere, the crew and director better go hide in that holes...

[tughan_a · 5/10 · 2 October 2018]

This was a high budget garbage... I was really disappointed with Force awakens but this one sealed the deal... Disney is finished...