AT THE MOVIES

by Isy Jordan

Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Director: Rian Johnson
Starring: Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, and more.

Rey develops her newly discovered abilities with the guidance of Luke Skywalker, who is unsettled by the strength of her powers. Meanwhile, the Resistance prepares for battle with the First Order.

After the exciting first movie in this new Star Wars trilogy, The Force Awakens, I was excited for the next film, wondering if we'd actually hear Luke Skywalker speak and where the story would go from here. Well, there's good news and bad news.

The good new is that the actors, the sets, the effects, not to mention new characters we welcomed to the story like Laura Dern's Vice Admiral Holdo, redeemed this film as much as it was possible to do so. The actors approached their roles with energy, vigor, and did an amazing job. The effects department did their job and everything in this film looked amazing. That made the 2 hours and 32 minutes I spent on this film mostly worth it.

The bad news? The directing styles of Rian Johnson and J.J. Abrams were so strikingly different. The story went in directions that I didn't anticipate -- and not in a good way. I've been a huge Star Wars fan since my childhood in the 70s and I've not seen the likes of this in any Star Wars story. This would have had Jar Jar Binks shaking his head.

It's hard to say what went wrong with this film without dropping major spoilers. At the end of the first film, Rey had just discovered the Force was strong with her, defeated Kylo Ren, and saved Fin after the tragic loss of Han Solo. She left with Chewbacca to find Luke Skywalker, once the map to his location was completed, because he was viewed by General Leia and the rest of the Resistance as their last hope.

This film picked up exactly where the last left off and one wonders if we shouldn't have left Luke there. He doesn't want to help the Resistance, the First Order is growing by leaps and bounds, particularly after their actions at the end of the first movie. And Snoke is really...? Again, don't want to drop spoilers but all of the exciting fan theories about who and what Snoke may be? Forget it. It's not nearly as exciting.

There were a LOT of WTF moments in the film and if you didn't understand what happened at a particular moment, no worries. Most of the galaxy is wondering the same thing. Seriously. Everything there was beautiful, looked good, and sounded great. But it was rather like being promised a ride in a beautiful, brand new Jaguar -- and then being driven around a pothole ridden parking lot in it at about 5 miles an hour. Not what you signed up for.

This reviewer and true Star Wars fan can only hope that the third movie will redeem this mess. Now available on video, The Last Jedi, I know, will still be added by enthusiasts their collections. Hope you can catch it on sale.