By Anthony Aleman
Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a thrilling, action packed, aesthetically masterful waste of potential. Saying this is upsetting for a guy who loves Star Wars and it’s universe. This movie has a hard time deciding who it wants to appeal to, a hard time deciding what it wants to be, a hard time telling a story or building a universe, whether it’s to appeal to the hardcore fans or that one mom that thinks R2-D2 is cute.
It fails to appeal to the hardcore fans or the casuals, the trailers for this movie heavily imply that Rey and Kylo become Gray’s. Gray being a side of the Force that is neither Dark Side nor Light, a neutral. This could’ve introduced casual fans to a new perspective they’ve never seen before, and could even take the new movies in an entirely new neutral direction to add some diversity instead of the cookie-cutter Bad versus Good story.
The trailers also introduce plenty of cute new species that toy companies can milk for a few years, appealing to the casual fans. However the movie doesn’t take enough time (which it need I say, has a LOT of) to establish either. It doesn’t make any reference to the Gray’s or anything that would please the hardcore fans. Nor does it give the audience enough time to “awww” the cute little animals, unlike in Force Awakens where BB-8 was given a fair amount of screen time to just be a cute robot and sell toys.
The story is so linear and predictable anything you thought this movie was going to be about I can guarantee would’ve been an improvement, even if it was just two hours and thirty minutes of Porg screaming at the audience. You wouldn’t be expecting it that’s for sure! Also did you know that thing is called a Porg? Neither did I!
With the frustratingly casual plot and twists, what this movie does right is visuals, just like the Prequels! If You thought a Death Planet shooting sun fire was aesthetic, you’re in luck as Last Jedi offers the best CGI effects and style in the series, animatronics are fluid and sound design is awesomely captivating, leaving fans exciting for more.
While unfortunately it’s only good quality and what some call “worst movie in the series”, I sadly agree; this movie doesn’t know what it wants to be. Notice how I compared this movie to the prequels, it’s just fun explosions and space on a screen with lens flair's that break immersion. Like the prequels, someone wanted to make a product first and it was an idea second, not the other way around.
The original trilogy (episodes 4-6) tell a story with each movies providing both context and a tad bit of lore help to build the world's and it’s characters, leading to an epic conclusion. Last Jedi and Force Awakens spends hardly any time developing characters, the worlds, or even the factions and would rather shove new ones down your throat to sell more Phasma toys.
Hopefully the directors and writers do better with the next film. With this movie and the recent Battlefront 2 disaster, Disney isn’t looking too good as a company at the moment, the next movie may just be their last hope…