The Last Jedi

I watched both prequels and originals at about the same time. I also dipped my toes into an Expanded Universe. The novels about Rogue and Wraith Squadrons which show a gritty side of Star Wars are among my favourite. The reason why I liked the recent Rogue One movie so much is that it managed to recapture that vision of Star Wars.

When I knew that the new Star Wars movies were going to be made by Disney - a studio which also produces Marvel movies - I was skeptical. I'm not a fan of Disney movies, the superhero genre, and neither I am a fan of a particular Marvel style with lots of forced jokes, the visual style of grey concrete and unremarkable music.

Some of my skepticism was proven wrong by The Force Awakens. It had an amazing visual style, fantastic new music themes, good sense of humor. And more importantly, it managed to introduce new characters which I was immediately invested in. Yes, It reused too many elements of the original trilogy but I was ready to shrug this off as something that studio had to do to spark the fire of Star Wars again.

The Last Jedi is a first instalment of the new Star Wars trilogy which was expected to stand on its own. And in some cases it does. It introduces some new elements in a Star Wars universe like Marvel-style jokey jokes which ruin many dramatic moments of the movie, cartoonish villains which don't pose any real danger, a couple of new two-dimensional characters along with some bad CGI which prequels are infamous for. At the same time, it once again reuses a lot of the elements from the original trilogy, but this time borrowing from both the Empire and the Return of the Jedi.

There are many things that don't work about this movie. Some individual plotlines don't make sense (entire Fin and Rose journey). Characters that were interesting to watch together don't stand on their own (Fin, Poe, and in some cases Rey). A lot of cheap thrills, fake outs and flip expactations moments start feeling too repetitive very quickly. And overall it just doesn't feel like a solid, cohesive movie like The Force Awakens was.

The only things that do work about The Last Jedi involve Rey and Kylo. Adam Driver truly shines in his role in this movie. We see a new, ambitious side of Kylo which presents itself in a visually stunning scene in which the movie gets rid of Snoke - seemingly boring two-dimensional villain. Unfortunately, many of those scenes feel like cheap thrills in the end as they don't add much to the whole narrative. We barely knew who Snoke was to begin with. Kylo Ren is immediately reduced back to a foolish child. And Rey and Kylo characters are back to where they started.

The new trilogy is already an enormous success and has generated billions of dollars for Disney. Let's hope they manage to salvage the mess that we are left with.