I loved it.
My first impressions from the first few minutes was that this was a retread of Empire Strikes Back. The First Order have tracked down the resistance base on a remote planet, and the resistance are trying to evacuate before the First Order land troops and... oh, wait a minute, there is no shield, no cannon and the base is going to be obliterated from space. And things seem to go well for the resistance, as they are able to stall long enough to get almost everybody safely aboard their cruiser and off to safety. But not before Poe Dameron (X-Wing ace turned hot-headed insubordinate comedian pilot) decides to sacrifice the entire bomber fleet just to destroy a Dreadnaught. Let's here it for Pyrrhic victories!
Worse still, the First Order have developed a way to track the Resistance through hyperspace: running away is not a way to escape, and hyperspace fuel is in limited supply.
At the end of the previous film, Rey had successfully tracked down Luke Skywalker, and much of this film covers her efforts to persuade him to join the Resistance. So, we have space battles interspersed with the story of a Jedi master and a young Jedi-wannabe/trainee on a remote, green, damp planet. Like I said, I kept recalling Empire Strikes Back throughout this film. I haven't looked online to see if anybody has listed all the parallels between The Last Jedi and The Empire Strikes back, but I saw a few (and I'm only a casual movie-goer). Luke Skywalker has traded his youthful naivety and enthusiasm for jaded cynicism. The way he casually lobs his lightsabre over his shoulder is both funny and tragic at the same time.
My only niggle with the film is the amount of time spent on the story with Rey and Luke. The other storylines were far more exciting and just downright interesting; Luke and Rey - less so. Luke goes for a walk. Luke catches a fish. Luke wanders around his island. Yawn.
The plot makes a lot of sense, and there's a direct causal link between the Admiral and her tight-lipped need-to-know authoritarian attitude, conflicting with Poe Dameron's "we have a right to know what's going on" and the subsequent demise of the resistance fleet. If she'd told Poe what her plan was, he wouldn't have sent Finn off to find the code breaker, who wouldn't have subsequently told the First Order about the resistance's plans and their cloaking frequency (or whatever it was). If they'd all stayed home, sat tight and waited it out, they might all have survived. I'm not blaming him or her, but it seems like the two characters managed to deliberately out-hard-head each other - aiming to be the most stubborn character and the one who wins, until neither of them do.
Some of my favourite aspects of the film is how the script addresses some of the criticisms that were levelled at the first of the new films (The Force Awakens).
"Finn should have had that fight with Captain Phasma, not with some random stormtrooper with a cool elbow mounted weapon." Cue large-scale, violent, hand-to-hand fight between Finn and Phasma.
"Snoke is too much like the Emperor and there's no real explanation for him." Kill him off - now who saw that coming?
"More Poe Dameron!" - definitely fixed in this episode. He kicks off the action at the start; we see more of his character throughout this film (borderline arrogant, but still funny) and he commits mutiny. This is not a replacement for Han Solo; this is a whole new character who has his own ideas, opinions and history.
"Do something different!" - I saw most of the parallels between The Force Awakens and A New Hope. In fact, it felt like a rehash of the story with new faces. As I mentioned earlier, The Last Jedi has elements of The Empire Strikes Back in it, but those elements have been rearranged to produce a fresh story (and no, I didn't for one second think "It's salt!", I knew full well it was meant to be snow).
All-in-all, I'm excited for the next installment; I'm looking forwards to the Han Solo movie and I feel even more optimistic for the future of the Star Wars saga.
My first impressions from the first few minutes was that this was a retread of Empire Strikes Back. The First Order have tracked down the resistance base on a remote planet, and the resistance are trying to evacuate before the First Order land troops and... oh, wait a minute, there is no shield, no cannon and the base is going to be obliterated from space. And things seem to go well for the resistance, as they are able to stall long enough to get almost everybody safely aboard their cruiser and off to safety. But not before Poe Dameron (X-Wing ace turned hot-headed insubordinate comedian pilot) decides to sacrifice the entire bomber fleet just to destroy a Dreadnaught. Let's here it for Pyrrhic victories!
Worse still, the First Order have developed a way to track the Resistance through hyperspace: running away is not a way to escape, and hyperspace fuel is in limited supply.
At the end of the previous film, Rey had successfully tracked down Luke Skywalker, and much of this film covers her efforts to persuade him to join the Resistance. So, we have space battles interspersed with the story of a Jedi master and a young Jedi-wannabe/trainee on a remote, green, damp planet. Like I said, I kept recalling Empire Strikes Back throughout this film. I haven't looked online to see if anybody has listed all the parallels between The Last Jedi and The Empire Strikes back, but I saw a few (and I'm only a casual movie-goer). Luke Skywalker has traded his youthful naivety and enthusiasm for jaded cynicism. The way he casually lobs his lightsabre over his shoulder is both funny and tragic at the same time.
My only niggle with the film is the amount of time spent on the story with Rey and Luke. The other storylines were far more exciting and just downright interesting; Luke and Rey - less so. Luke goes for a walk. Luke catches a fish. Luke wanders around his island. Yawn.
The plot makes a lot of sense, and there's a direct causal link between the Admiral and her tight-lipped need-to-know authoritarian attitude, conflicting with Poe Dameron's "we have a right to know what's going on" and the subsequent demise of the resistance fleet. If she'd told Poe what her plan was, he wouldn't have sent Finn off to find the code breaker, who wouldn't have subsequently told the First Order about the resistance's plans and their cloaking frequency (or whatever it was). If they'd all stayed home, sat tight and waited it out, they might all have survived. I'm not blaming him or her, but it seems like the two characters managed to deliberately out-hard-head each other - aiming to be the most stubborn character and the one who wins, until neither of them do.
Some of my favourite aspects of the film is how the script addresses some of the criticisms that were levelled at the first of the new films (The Force Awakens).
"Finn should have had that fight with Captain Phasma, not with some random stormtrooper with a cool elbow mounted weapon." Cue large-scale, violent, hand-to-hand fight between Finn and Phasma.
"Snoke is too much like the Emperor and there's no real explanation for him." Kill him off - now who saw that coming?
"More Poe Dameron!" - definitely fixed in this episode. He kicks off the action at the start; we see more of his character throughout this film (borderline arrogant, but still funny) and he commits mutiny. This is not a replacement for Han Solo; this is a whole new character who has his own ideas, opinions and history.
"Do something different!" - I saw most of the parallels between The Force Awakens and A New Hope. In fact, it felt like a rehash of the story with new faces. As I mentioned earlier, The Last Jedi has elements of The Empire Strikes Back in it, but those elements have been rearranged to produce a fresh story (and no, I didn't for one second think "It's salt!", I knew full well it was meant to be snow).
All-in-all, I'm excited for the next installment; I'm looking forwards to the Han Solo movie and I feel even more optimistic for the future of the Star Wars saga.
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