STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI (2017) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

star wars: the last jedi (2017) movie

Genre               |   Science Fiction
Classification   |   M
Running time   |  152 minutes
Released         |   14 December 2017

cast

​Daisy Ridley as Rey
John Boyega as Finn
Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker
Carrie Fisher as Leia
​Adam Driver as Kylo Ren

director

Rian Johnson

writer

Rian Johnson

cinematographer

Steve Yedlin

music

John Williams

film editor

​​Bob Ducsay

box office result

Worldwide             $​1,326,377,319  
Australia                 $​45,224,977
North America       $​617,556,777 

the best dialogue

Luke Skywalker: This is not going to go the way you think!
Supreme Leader Snoke: Fulfill your destiny!
Kylo Ren: Let the past die. Kill it, if you have to. That's the only way to become what you are meant to be.

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI (2017) IMAGES & VIDEOS

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STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI (2017) STORY SYNOPSIS

Luke Skywalker's peaceful and solitary existence gets upended when he encounters Rey, a young woman who shows strong signs of the Force. Her desire to learn the ways of the Jedi forces Luke to make a decision that changes their lives forever. Meanwhile, Kylo Ren and General Hux lead the First Order in an all-out assault against Leia and the Resistance for supremacy of the galaxy.

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI (2017) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 14 December 2017
Pop ​Movee Rating ⭐⭐⭐½
Just like in the original Star Wars, where Red Leader tells Gold Five to “Stay on target!”, Lucasfilm’s own “Red Leader”, Kathleen Kennedy, has managed to get newly-inducted squadron member Rian Johnson to keep his eye firmly fixed on the “Galactic” view with STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI. Johnson, who is a huge Star Wars fan, must surely have been tempted to go “off the reservation” and indulge, even just a little bit, the boy inside the man and emulate THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, as fans will want and need in order to warrant a belief that this latest trilogy of stores “from a galaxy far, far away” is as good as the original films. However, Johnson is no J.J. Abrams. Where Abrams had the track record, with multiple Box Office winners, and the association, by way of his Hollywood relationships, with the inner-sanctum of both Lucasfilm and Disney, Ryan Johnson appears to be an outsider who has been invited into Kennedy’s “Circle of Trust”. Given Johnson wasn’t fired part the way through the production, and it’s been announced he’s working on a new trilogy of Star Wars films, it’s reasonably safe to say that he followed the party line and did as much as what he was allowed within the parameters of the Lucasfilm/Disney brief. STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI feels very much like “Let’s not stuff this up…”, as opposed to “Let’s blow the doors off this old jalopy!”

The second installment in this third Star Wars trilogy starts with an extended battle sequence to help relax viewers into their seats and let them know that everything's “A-OK”; STAR WARS is back. Just sit back and enjoy the adventure. Once the audience is comfortably seated, Johnson cuts back to where the previous episode finished, with Daisy Ridley’s Rey, arm extended with the lightsabre Anakin Skywalker lost in battle to Obi-Wan Kenobi all those years before on the molten volcanic planet of Mustafar, confronting Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker for the first time. It’s no stretch to say Luke’s reaction is unexpected, as Rey attempts to convince the Jedi Master that he must help her learn the ways of “The Force” and help bring peace to an increasingly-dangerous galaxy. As is expected of a Star Wars movie, there’s no shortage of adventure, action sequences and exotic locations explored over the course of the movie’s 152 minute running time. It’s a long film but Johnson doesn’t mind taking his time. Some parts of THE LAST JEDI feel unnecessary and Johnson’s desire to provide “moments”, even for inconsequential characters, make the film longer than it really needs to be. Somehow, this probably won’t be a problem for the STAR WARS faithful.

There’s never an expectation that Star Wars will deliver Award-winning turns. The stories are not written with Method Actors in mind. THE LAST JEDI does, however, introduce a number of new characters to help fill out the roster as the series heads for Third Base and, ultimately, the Home Plate with the return of J.J. Abrams; writing and directing the third and final chapter in this third trilogy of films. There’s no shortage of sentiment for Carrie Fisher’s General Leia (even though she’ll always be Princess Leia to those of us who encountered her in the opening moments of Star Wars forty years ago). Fisher’s untimely death in late 2016 was tragic and her contribution to the Star Wars franchise comes clearly into focus in this new film as Leia struggles to pull together and lead the Resistance in the face of Supreme Leader Snoke’s desire to rid himself of her opposition. With the exception of Daisy Ridley, the carry-over cast from THE FORCE AWAKENS deliver in spades. Ridley is a clear weak link in terms of performance and Johnson’s less kinetic approach to filmmaking exposes the young actress, who, at times, literally feels like she’s reading her lines off a card; much like Marlon Brando did when he played Vito Corleone in THE GODFATHER. Her performance is salvaged by Adam Driver, whose Kylo Ren becomes more dangerous in THE LAST JEDI, as his ambivalence to anything other than absolute power makes him the most formidable (and unpredictable) STAR WARS villain ever. Of the newcomers, Laura Dern is a great addition as Vice Admiral Holdo, but Benicio Del Toro feels out-of-place as DJ, a “Rogue Scoundrel” that seems like a derivation of Billy Dee Williams’s Lando Calrissian. Perhaps the greatest character moment in THE LAST JEDI is the one that will touch fan’s hearts the most, with the reunion between brother and sister, Luke and Leia. 

As expected, THE LAST JEDI is a tour-de-force of production design and visual effects. Oscar winning Production Designer Rick Heinrichs has brought Johnson’s story to life with settings that do justice to the Star Wars aesthetic but also provide a distinct look for the movie that sets it apart from THE FORCE AWAKENS and the other two trilogies. Likewise, the visual effects, delivered primarily by ILM, add new “words” and “phrases” to the Star Wars visual vocabulary. Stand-out elements include the “Battle of Crait”; Johnson’s homage to EMPIRE’s “Battle of Hoth”. Kylo Ren’s new ship, the TIE Silencer, is a cool variation on the previously seen TIE Interceptor, while Oscar Isaac’s Poe Dameron gets a huge X-Wing upgrade that must be some kind of hat-tip to George Lucas’s love of making everything go really, really fast. (Poe’s new fighter immediately made me think of the Hot Rods Lucas featured way back in his 1974 Box Office hit AMERICAN GRAFFITI…) THE LAST JEDI also features a new score by series veteran John Williams. It’s not his best or his most original work, but the 85 year old, five time Oscar-winning Composer has been a constant in the Star Wars universe for forty years and his contribution to the popular recognition of the franchise is immeasurable. 

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI is not the film fans were looking for. In no way does it take the audience beyond any preconceptions they may have been able to conjure in their own minds. Much like a good Jedi mind trick, THE LAST JEDI works hard to convince the viewer there’s a whole lot more going on than what there really is. Rian Johnson, with his 2012 LOOPER, demonstrated he knows how to make excellent Science Fiction. Unfortunately, the ever-growing constraints of the STAR WARS franchise have prevented him from delivering a movie that challenges the viewer and turns their world upside down. THE LAST JEDI certainly doesn’t deliver any “I am your Father” moments. It’s been left to J.J. Abrams and the next installment of this third STAR WARS trilogy to pull together the narrative threads and deliver the “Big Reveal(s)” that will help mesh the 2015 - 2019 movies with those from 1977 - 1983 and 1999 - 2005  entries. Will it be worth the wait? Highly likely. Abrams is the best “Showman” in the movie making business and he knows how to build anticipation for his projects that is Kubrick-like in its effect. Closing out the previous two trilogies has not been easy; just ask George Lucas. However, with THE LAST JEDI, Rian Johnson has provided Abrams with an extremely solid launching pad that could lead to the strongest series close of the three trilogies. 

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI MOVIE (2017) USEFUL LINKS

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