This latest installment from Lucasfilm, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, has been divisive between critics and fans. Critics has been celebrating the movie as well as writer-director Rian Johnson, but hardcore fans left cinemas feeling disappointed.
As for me, I am one of those fanboys that left the movie quite disappointed at some of the direction the story took. Having only watched once, I will leave my initial opinions here and perhaps another post after I've seen it a second time.
So in order to go into what I want to, this is going to be filled with SPOILERS.
You have been warned.
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The opening 15 to 20 minutes were brilliant. The first few lines involved Oscar Isaac once again (just like in The Force Awakens) and they were filled with humour. But the action sequences that followed and the many sacrifices that the pilots made - I can only wish that was how members of Rogue One went out in the final battle on Scarif.
The new additions of Kelly Marie Tran and Laura Dern were really good, introducing us to new and memorable characters. I could relate to Dern's character Admiral Holdo more than most moviegoers only because I just read the novel "Leia: Princess Of Alderaan" where Leia and Holdo shared a few adventures together.
Some of the returning cast like Domhnall Gleeson and Oscar Isaac had more to do and their characters were better off for it.
Daisy Ridley, John Boyega and Adam Driver were the main stars, especially with Ridley and Driver which the story really focuses on and rightly so. Both of these actors really showcased and expanded their characters individually and I loved where the story is taking them both.
Now for the negatives. Andy Serkis' Supreme Leader Snoke was destroyed in the middle of the movie. But more importantly, he died without giving fans the questions we have been asking since The Force Awakens. Who is he? Why is his face deformed? How did he rise to power after the death of Darth Sidious and where was he back then?
And that's also a prompt for me to go into the weak continuity from the first movie of this new trilogy. Why is Lucasfilm introducing characters like Snoke and Knights of Ren when they are not going to explain them properly? The build-up has been so unnecessary and unwarranted and we as fans who have been eating every little detail up, really felt cheated.
As for Leia and Luke, they should have changed the third act drastically after Carrie Fisher has sadly passed. Leia should have died in space, not some mumbo-jumbo use of the Force to save herself. And Luke should not have gone into the Force so soon, certainly not by the end of this movie.
Luke was barely in the first movie, and he has been keeping himself away from the Force and the first grand act that he did, he dies right after? We didn't even see Luke go badass with a lightsaber. We didn't even see him physically interact with anyone other than Rey. And for fans who have not had Luke in their lives for decades, and then this was how he was used in his final movie? Unacceptable.
The middle of the movie where Finn and Rose had this bonding experience on the casino planet was rubbish and a waste of time. Johnson should have went with another direction rather than having the heroes ride some horse-like creatures. But the angle of having the need to find a code breaker / slicer, I really love that because we never had any focus on the other "jobs" in this universe in the first six movies, only in books or games.
But to have Benicio Del Toro to do only that as DJ? What a waste. I hope we don't see him anymore in the next movie. He left a really bad taste in my mouth because I got really excited to see him being introduced.
Still, it is a beautiful film that Johnson has created. Minus a couple of misplaced humorous moments and the Las Vegas planet which the name has escaped me at the moment, the pacing and the tone for the most part were on point. The action sequences were great, and that showdown with the Praetorian Guards were epic!
I am massively disappointed because my expectations were through the roof. But that expectation is also the downfall of this experience. So hopefully going into it a second time, I will have a more balanced and unbiased view to the story.
I'm hoping to catch this again in a few days time on IMAX, and will report back again after that.
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