Review: Star Wars VIII The Last Jedi Is An Empty Disappointment
- Dec 14, 2017
- 2 min read
The much anticipated sequel to the mostly dull Force Awakens, The Last Jedi opens with a bang, and ends with a whimper.
Picking up straight after the events of The Force Awakens, we find our heroes scattered across the galaxy. As Poe (Oscar Isaac), Finn (John Boyega) and Leia (Carrie Fisher) run from the ever nearing First Order, led by Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis), Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson), Rey (Daisy Ridley) seeks training from Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). But all's not well in the galaxy, nor is it well in this movie.
Aside from a truly excellent opening scene that combines the WW2 stylings of the original trilogy with more modern techniques to create a thoroughly enjoyable space battle, and most of Mark Hamill’s performance, including one unexpected scene, there’s not much going for The Last Jedi. Piss poor writing (seriously, some of this gives sand a run for its money), Daisy Ridley’s flat acting, badly timed jokes, a crappy villain in Kylo Ren and several characters and concepts that are totally wasted, and others that seem plucked out of thin, directionless air, and you have a recipe for a strange movie. One that begins as Star Wars and ends as a big load of nothing.
And when I say nothing, I mean nothing. I won’t spoil anything but everything that occurs in this film ultimately amounts to things being pretty similar to what they were at the start, at least, anything that’s going to matter. There comes a point, relatively early one in what is already a needlessly long film, at which my suspension of disbelief (a bar already very low because Star Wars) was shattered into a thousand tiny pieces, and it never quite recovered.
The Last Jedi isn’t an awful movie, but it is a pointless film. It manages to be formulaic while pushing boundaries no one wanted pushed. It drives an agenda no one cares about and, by the time the next film rolls around, no one will care about this one.
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