Star Wars: The Last Jedi

We went to watch The Last Jedi at the IMAX on a frosty Glasgow night.  As we waited to get in, I did my best not to hear anything about the film from the departing crowd.  I was on spoiler lockdown and as I'm going to talk a bit about the film, don't read too much further before you see it.

The Last Jedi was great but I'm not sure that it was exactly what I was expecting.  This is good because films can often become boring if they are too predictable.  It picks up the story almost minutes after the end of The Force Awakens with the remnants of the Resistance, led by Princess Leia, being hunted down and exterminated by the First Order.  This film very much had a vibe like the successful Battlestar Galactica TV series reboot that was made about a decade or so ago.

In the other major thread of the story Rey tracked down Luke on an island on an isolated planet.  This is a very different Luke compared with my childhood hero.  This is a Luke who in many ways is Yoda-like but also burnt out and cynical.  This is a Luke who has made mistakes, got things wrong and now has to live with the consequences of his actions.  The maturing of the Luke Skywalker character was a bit disorientating but was probably a good decision.

The other big storyline is the interaction between Ben Solo/Kylo Ren and Rey and the evil Snoke.  This was fairly well done and I really didn't know what to expect.  The choices they made worked and there is still a lot of potential for new stories to come.

I liked the use of Laura Dern and Benicio Del Toro in the film, both of whom had interesting characters and roles to play.  This is probably the most female led Star Wars film yet, which is a good thing and the film series has now really escaped the 'white people in space' reputation it was in danger of attracting.

This film is funny.  It's funnier than most of the other Star Wars films, especially Rogue One, which was fairly dark.  It's a slapstick, Marvel type humour at times but there is still the occasional emotional punch.

I need to watch this film again, probably a few times.  I may even go back to the cinema to see it.  Again, I'm a bit sad that my dad died before this film came out as I'm sure he would have enjoyed it.

I'm looking forward to Episode 9 now.  After the film ended I was sad that we won't see Carrie Fisher as Leia again, as she was clearly destined to play a big part in Episode 9.  I hope that an appropriate tribute to her will be made in that film.