Comrades, brothers in arms, sisters in... legs? May I invite you to my second ever film review blog (Nobody cares).After dipping my toe into these tenebrous waters for the Force Awakens, something I took a smidgen of satisfaction from before racing off into the cosy confines of sport and other rambling things, here goes the follow up.
So, The Last Jedi. If the Force Awakens was a carbon copy of the New Hope, this is a polar opposite.
Perhaps irked by the safeness of its predecessor, director Rian Johnson has gone out of his way to be as ambitious, ballsy and unpredictable as possible. To quote Luke: "This isn't going to go the way you think."
When the credits rolled, my first thought was, 'Huh, odd.' Followed by a 'Hmm', and finished with a 'Crikey.' I wouldn't have been able to do a review then as, to me at the time, it was ineffable. But now I have pondered, enjoyed an apple and a crisp sandwich, and I am ready to disappoint you all.
So, for me the Kylo Ren is great in this once again. He is as complex and well-thought out a character as you could hope to imagine. The fight scenes are an improvement on the last, although still not amazing, and the special effects are better still.
Seeing Yoda again was cool. Kylo and Rey's back and forth from across the galaxy was something new and creative.
But. And it is a BUT so vast and so all consuming, that it cannot lie, something that brothers cannot deny.
It really leaves you with a lot of unanswered questions and unsatisfying takeaways.Finn and his new pal Rose end up almost being redundant apart from introducing us to a few swanky places.
To paraphrase Frankie Boyle wh
en describing Darth Vader, "Phasma, you look like a big silver dildo."
They have an endless, elongated chase with the big ship thingy with the annoying purple haired woman, who actually ends up doing something awesome and going lightspeedy on the First Order.
Now to Supreme Leader Snoke. An intriguing but woefully under explored character - we know nothing about him. Where he came from? Who is he? Does he like sit down showers and appletiser? THESE QUESTIONS NEED TO BE ANSWERED.
He is dead before you can say 'Where the feck did Leia get force powers from when she was about to become a popsicle like Yondu in Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and why does she look like she's gliding through the ducking matrix?'
I actually guffawed at that bit in the cinema and I was not the only one.
The huge hype of Luke for me was a let down. This messiah-like character admitted to falling in love with his own legend and being a coward. However, I do think he was a bit powderpuff at times in the original films but he is anything but that here.
Kylo's words of: "Let the past die, kill it if you have to. It's the only way to become who you're meant to be," stuck in my mind for an important reason.I have never been a massive Star Wars fan, I mean it is nothing on Lord of the Rings, FACT, but I think many die hard fans will be let down as it sort of shatters the Jedi image.
For them, this film has wiped the slate clean and that is a bad thing. Anywho, I digress ever so slightly.
The fact that Kylo and Rey, who are relative novices in terms of kick-assery, are now like the two head honchos seems a bit nuts.
I reckon Anthony Joshua could have a say and try and unify the Jedi heavyweight division with a unification bout.
There was just so much going on it was hard to keep up. It had a quantity over quality feel, especially with the drawn out length of the film.
For me I would give it a 5.553 out of 10. I liked bits but overall it did not live up to the hype at all but I will definitely watch the next one, just so I can put the four people who will read this through more agony.
