164.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
5.5/10
Time to get back into the Star Wars Universe. One of my favourite universes and since watching the remakes of the original treble bill, there was no turning back for me. Obviously, Attack of the Clones was a pile of crap and Hayden Christensen's acting was about as entertaining as watching a plank throw out some dialogue, but everything has a flaw from time to time. I didn't even mind Jar Jar Binks. The Force Awakens was pretty much a remake of A New Hope though, loosely containing the same kind of story, so I am waiting for this to have aspects of The Empire Strikes Back. With Rogue One planted in the middle of these two movies, that was also a hit for me. It constantly wets your whistle for needing more Star Wars in your life. The gang are back and with some more Luke Skywalker involved, it's going to be interesting to see what they have planned for him. Is this going to be a galactic movie or heading Alderaan places? (I'm here all night).
As the usual text rolls up, we are filled in with what has been happening in the Galaxy. The First Order have pretty much conquered the Republic and Resistance forces. These beaten Resistance forces, are still being led by General Leia, escape the planet of D'Qar, just as a fleet of First Order arrive and a battle commences as a Dreadnaught appears and is taken out by a team led by Poe Dameron, played by Oscar Isaac, but not without cost. The fleet escape but are tracked through hyperspace by the First Order and carries on the attack. Kylo Ren is on the attack towards his mother's space and is hesitant to shoot after feeling his mother's presence. His sidekicks don't give a shit though and blow up the bridge, sending Leia out into space and to certain death. That's until she decides to use the force and flies back to safety and collapses. Ok then. Whilst she is in the sick bay, Admiral Holdo takes over and her plan isn't well received by Poe. She wants a full evacuation but Poe helps Finn, BB-8 and a shipmate named Rose Tico. They are off on a secret mission because they need to stop the tracker on the main First Order ship's tracking device. Firstly though, they need a code hacker, in order to get into the room to stop the tracker.
Meanwhile, Rey has arrived on the island where Skywalker is hiding and we see the same scene that we did at the end of the Force Awakens. As I find myself getting excited at the fact we are about to see him wield a lightsaber again, he takes it off Rey and throws it backwards, over his shoulder. What the fuck Luke! I've waited all this time and he seems to simply dismiss it. He's the most serious Jedi that I've come to know and the Luke Skywalker that we have come to know, wouldn't act like that. He refuses to leave with Rey and help the resistance, even after hearing about the death of Han Solo, when questioning Chewy, who walks in alone. The reason that he hasn't used the force to find out about his family, was down to him being on exile from the force. This way, he cannot be tracked down by other using the force. Somehow, inside her hut, Rey has been using the force herself, to talk to Kylo Ren. They can see each other, but only in figure form and not where each other are. They have no control over this and don't understand why it's happening. They learn about each other's pasts and see themselves in the future as partners. R2 is even in on trying to turn Luke's mind around on training Rey, who has taken it on herself to constantly follow him around. On this island, there are plenty of humorous moments, which aren't really linked to the Star Wars franchise, when we would only usually get the cockiness from Han or others. Kylo and Rey have another contact and this time, he tells her what happened between him and Luke, causing him to choose the dark side of the force as he woke to Luke standing over him, saber aloft. Luke admits that he did contemplate killing the boy, when he sensed that Snoke was corrupting him, causing Kylo to destroy the new Jedi Order. Rey has convinced herself that she can turn Kylo back to good and leaves the island and Luke to his sulking. Luke decides to burn down the small Jedi temple and library but hesitates as a ghost of Yoda appears and destroys it instead. He claims that Rey has all she needs to learn from there and encourages Luke to learn from his mistakes. We have already seen Rey inside there, looking at the books and symbols so maybe she has read up a little.
Back to the ships, Holdo reveals her plans to everyone else and Poe believes that she is a coward, planning a mutiny, to give Finn and the gang a little more time. On Canto Bight, a casino place that resembles Earth a lot more than people realise, the place is full of money and people who have made their fortunes through war. They are there to get the help from a hacker but end up causing a stir and being arrested. They are in a cell with a weird looking fella with a stutter, named DJ. He is a thief and also a decent hacker apparently, and offers to help if they help him escape. Finn refuses but it ends up coming all together as BB-8 helps him with his fight out, as the other two run elsewhere and end up hiding inside the racing stables, where Rose once worked. She gets the help from the kids there before escaping on top of the racing beasts, running through the streets and towards some fields, where DJ has stolen a ship and picked them up to return to space, just in time. The end up infiltrating Snoke's ship and are instantly captured by Phasma. On the same ship, Rey has been ballsy enough to land and confront Kylo, to turn him back to good. Kylo has none of it and takes her straight to Snoke, who reveals to them that he was the one causing the connection through the force, as part of his plan to find Luke and kill him. As he easily lifts Rey into the air and takes her saber, he puts it next to him, as we can see that Kylo is a little uneasy. Snoke can read his mind, telling him that he wants to turn his turn on him too, that he is weak and will come to nothing. He gives him one last chance to prove himself, to turn his lightsaber and kill Rey, but every action that he is implanting into Kylo's mind, Kylo is using on the lightsaber that Snoke has already taken from Rey and put on his arm rest. The result is, Kylo turns the saber and slices Snoke in half, before his henchmen turn on the two and they both have a pretty epic fight scene, helping each other out. So, Snoke, the guy we knew nothing about, have been waiting to find out who he is, where he came from and where he has been all of the other prequel times, is dead. Gone. Wasted. And we still have no answers. At the end, Rey believes that she has turned Kylo back, only for him to offer her to rule the galaxy with him, to which she refuses. He even tells her about her parents, a question that many in the audience have been waiting to hear. And the wait is over, only for us to find out that her parents are nothing and she was sold off as a slave. Massive thumbs up, not! She leaves, as the Emo kid now calls himself the supreme leader. As for Finn and Rose, they have been turned over by DJ, who told Phasma the plans they had all along, so he could get a decent pay off.
As the Resistance are being held on the ship by Poe, he locks himself in the bridge, only for the door to be blown up by Leia and she stuns him, taking Holdo's side and the evacuation continues. Hux has begun to fire on the small ships though, seeing them trying to escape. Holdo sees no other option but to have stayed behind to lead the First Order away, but they don't fall for it so, she turns the ship and heads into light speed, cutting the massive ship in half. Right, one major problem, or waste of time. The whole Finn and Rose going to find a hacker and failing just for this bird to fling her ship through the First Order, when she didn't even know if they were successful, meant that the side story wasn't needed at all. It was bollocks and simply a filler for this chase through space. But there we go. On this broken ship, Finn and Rose are still trying to make it out alive. BB-8 escaped earlier and is no controlling an AT-AT, taking out stormtroopers, until Phasma shows her face again and has a final showdown with Finn. She calls him scum, he corrects her with 'Rebel Scum' and she falls to her death, leaving them to escape. Another wasted character dead. On the planet of Crait, the Resistance are down to a few dozen. Kylo and Hux lead massive walkers onto the wall and big gate to which they are all hiding behind, armed with a laser style battering ram. The gang rounds up, with our favourites in the shape of Poe and Finn, get onto speeders and head for some sort of defence. Rose is there too but she's nothing more than an annoyance for me. Rey and Chewie even arrive, to draw away the TIE fighters. When all is near enough lost, Finn goes on a suicide mission, straight towards the laser cannon, like a scene from Independence Day, as the father heads into the laser beam to blow the ship up, only for Rose to crash into him last minute and stop him from killing himself and saving the rest of the gang. Selfish cow. Finn asks her why, as he pulls her out of her ship, to which she replies something along the lines of, 'We always fight for the ones we love'. She even kisses him and then passes out. I thought this chick was like 10 or something, the moaning bitch acted like a child throughout this. Finn rushes her back to the stronghold, just as the main door is breached.
Poe and Leia look at each other, clearly accepting fate but someone has other ideas and that comes in the way of Luke. Walking down the stairs with a bright like behind him, like Jesus floating down from heaven, he tells his sister that no one is truly lost. He walks out to face the First Order, who are commanded by Kylo by now, who orders them to fire everything on where Luke stands. After and insane number of explosions and no way of survival, the dust settles and we see Luke standing there, as he coolly dusts of his shoulder like some teenage kid of just scored a goal and doesn't want to make too much of it. You fucking what mate? This is not the Luke Skywalker that everyone has come to love, I'm over this by now. Poe realises that Luke is distracting them, so that everyone else can escape and seeing some crystal wolves, they follow them to their way out of the caves. They find their way out blocked by boulders though, but never fear, Rey is on the otherwise and uses her force to lift them all out of the way, for everyone to escape onto the Millennium Falcon. Finn and Rey embrace in the love story that everyone expected, but got handed Finn and Rose instead. Kylo heads down to face Luke on his own and the duel until Kylo heads for the killer blow, only to find out that Luke is a hologram. Wait, so how did their sabers connect during the fight? He's still on that island. Kylo screams in anger, knowing that everyone has escaped and he is no better off. Time for the teenage tantrum again. Back on Luke's island, we see him vanish in thin air and Rey senses that Luke has now gone, to which Leia feels the same and he has now become totally one with the force. She asks what will come of the resistance now and her answer is that they will simply rebuild.
The film ends with scenes back on Canto Bight and in the stables, one of the children who helped them escape earlier, is listening to other tell the story of Luke Skywalker, the hero. As their master walks in to scold them, the boy leaves and looks at the sky, seeing the Falcon fly overhead and he uses the force to grab a broom, before lifting it like a saber and ending up brushing the floor. The film finally finishes with the word, 'In loving memory of our Princess, Carrie Fisher'. A touching end.
This is such a frustrating film. A movie that shows us, for two and a half hours, the heroes that we have gotten used to recently, do nothing but fail on their quests. Rey couldn't change Luke or Kylo, Poe didn't lead the mutiny, Finn and Rose failed on their little mission and nearly everyone is dead. Everything we had been with teased in TFA, was directly chucked back in our faces with poor answers and choices by Rian Johnson. There was so much wasted in this, with Snoke, Phasma and the end of Luke, it just left me feeling empty and unsatisfied. The added humour has Disney written all over it and felt forced, with nothing but some awkward giggles sprouting up through the audience. The graphics, as per usual, along with the musical score, were as always, second to none and seeing a form of Luke back on our screens was another good part but the more I write this, the more I feel disappointed. I don't get why one director would do one movie, set it all up, just for another to come and do the second movie, to squash everything. This gives me no real excitement for the trilogy that has been given to Johnson and do not get me started on the Solo movie. Disney have made this for the masses, leaving enough crumbs for the older fans to pick on. Porgs created for toys, profits in the billions and hands are being rubbed together, thinking about their next cash cow to make their money from. Thanks Mickey!
As the Resistance are being held on the ship by Poe, he locks himself in the bridge, only for the door to be blown up by Leia and she stuns him, taking Holdo's side and the evacuation continues. Hux has begun to fire on the small ships though, seeing them trying to escape. Holdo sees no other option but to have stayed behind to lead the First Order away, but they don't fall for it so, she turns the ship and heads into light speed, cutting the massive ship in half. Right, one major problem, or waste of time. The whole Finn and Rose going to find a hacker and failing just for this bird to fling her ship through the First Order, when she didn't even know if they were successful, meant that the side story wasn't needed at all. It was bollocks and simply a filler for this chase through space. But there we go. On this broken ship, Finn and Rose are still trying to make it out alive. BB-8 escaped earlier and is no controlling an AT-AT, taking out stormtroopers, until Phasma shows her face again and has a final showdown with Finn. She calls him scum, he corrects her with 'Rebel Scum' and she falls to her death, leaving them to escape. Another wasted character dead. On the planet of Crait, the Resistance are down to a few dozen. Kylo and Hux lead massive walkers onto the wall and big gate to which they are all hiding behind, armed with a laser style battering ram. The gang rounds up, with our favourites in the shape of Poe and Finn, get onto speeders and head for some sort of defence. Rose is there too but she's nothing more than an annoyance for me. Rey and Chewie even arrive, to draw away the TIE fighters. When all is near enough lost, Finn goes on a suicide mission, straight towards the laser cannon, like a scene from Independence Day, as the father heads into the laser beam to blow the ship up, only for Rose to crash into him last minute and stop him from killing himself and saving the rest of the gang. Selfish cow. Finn asks her why, as he pulls her out of her ship, to which she replies something along the lines of, 'We always fight for the ones we love'. She even kisses him and then passes out. I thought this chick was like 10 or something, the moaning bitch acted like a child throughout this. Finn rushes her back to the stronghold, just as the main door is breached.
Poe and Leia look at each other, clearly accepting fate but someone has other ideas and that comes in the way of Luke. Walking down the stairs with a bright like behind him, like Jesus floating down from heaven, he tells his sister that no one is truly lost. He walks out to face the First Order, who are commanded by Kylo by now, who orders them to fire everything on where Luke stands. After and insane number of explosions and no way of survival, the dust settles and we see Luke standing there, as he coolly dusts of his shoulder like some teenage kid of just scored a goal and doesn't want to make too much of it. You fucking what mate? This is not the Luke Skywalker that everyone has come to love, I'm over this by now. Poe realises that Luke is distracting them, so that everyone else can escape and seeing some crystal wolves, they follow them to their way out of the caves. They find their way out blocked by boulders though, but never fear, Rey is on the otherwise and uses her force to lift them all out of the way, for everyone to escape onto the Millennium Falcon. Finn and Rey embrace in the love story that everyone expected, but got handed Finn and Rose instead. Kylo heads down to face Luke on his own and the duel until Kylo heads for the killer blow, only to find out that Luke is a hologram. Wait, so how did their sabers connect during the fight? He's still on that island. Kylo screams in anger, knowing that everyone has escaped and he is no better off. Time for the teenage tantrum again. Back on Luke's island, we see him vanish in thin air and Rey senses that Luke has now gone, to which Leia feels the same and he has now become totally one with the force. She asks what will come of the resistance now and her answer is that they will simply rebuild.
The film ends with scenes back on Canto Bight and in the stables, one of the children who helped them escape earlier, is listening to other tell the story of Luke Skywalker, the hero. As their master walks in to scold them, the boy leaves and looks at the sky, seeing the Falcon fly overhead and he uses the force to grab a broom, before lifting it like a saber and ending up brushing the floor. The film finally finishes with the word, 'In loving memory of our Princess, Carrie Fisher'. A touching end.
This is such a frustrating film. A movie that shows us, for two and a half hours, the heroes that we have gotten used to recently, do nothing but fail on their quests. Rey couldn't change Luke or Kylo, Poe didn't lead the mutiny, Finn and Rose failed on their little mission and nearly everyone is dead. Everything we had been with teased in TFA, was directly chucked back in our faces with poor answers and choices by Rian Johnson. There was so much wasted in this, with Snoke, Phasma and the end of Luke, it just left me feeling empty and unsatisfied. The added humour has Disney written all over it and felt forced, with nothing but some awkward giggles sprouting up through the audience. The graphics, as per usual, along with the musical score, were as always, second to none and seeing a form of Luke back on our screens was another good part but the more I write this, the more I feel disappointed. I don't get why one director would do one movie, set it all up, just for another to come and do the second movie, to squash everything. This gives me no real excitement for the trilogy that has been given to Johnson and do not get me started on the Solo movie. Disney have made this for the masses, leaving enough crumbs for the older fans to pick on. Porgs created for toys, profits in the billions and hands are being rubbed together, thinking about their next cash cow to make their money from. Thanks Mickey!
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