Thursday, December 21, 2017

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) directed by Rian Johnson

I guess this was bound to happen eventually. I have never seen a Star Wars film in my life, mostly because my parents never raised me with it. And by the time my friends and I had matured and developed our interests, I felt like it was too late to get in to the franchise. That is still my mindset, as I have absolutely no interest in any of these movies. I'm sure if I took the time to sit down and watch them, I would find decent enjoyment, but I simply do not care enough to do that. Through memes and internet spoilers, I know everything about the franchise, including the characters, stories, and lovable creatures, without actually having seen any of the films. So watching The Last Jedi was a strange experience indeed. While I do not necessarily care about these films, this one was decent. Adding on to the story of Rey, Finn, Poe, and the rest of the gang, this film does very many things well, including the writing, special effects, and character performances.

If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me, "you're a film major who hasn't seen Star Wars?", I would have enough money to buy out Walt Disney and stop the franchise. I understand how culturally important these films are and how innovative they were, especially in the 70's and 80's, but I do not find any appeal in them. That being said, I did try to enjoy this film as much as possible, and I did, for the most part. One of the greatest parts of this movie were the performances by Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker and Carrie Fisher as General Leia. The chemistry between those two is undeniable, and I do find it very tragic that this was Fisher's final film. Hamill absolutely stole the show in this movie, however, as his (spoilers) final performance was captivating. While he does not appear much in the previous film, from what I've learned, he took this movie and made it his own. Mark Hamill may be known for his cameos and original Star Wars roles, but this has been his best performance in anything I have seen him in for a long time.

There is nothing bad about this film, in fact, there are many spectacular aspects that push it to be an instant classic, I just simply have no interest. Parts of this film that stood out to me the most were the writing and special effects. Since Lucasfilm was purchased by Disney, they have practically unlimited money for the greatest effects and writers in the galaxy (see what I did there?). The writing in the film was engaging and fun, but seemed simple to me. It might be because since this is the eighth addition to this story, and they might be running out of ideas, but it was still exciting. The last part of this movie that I enjoyed were the aliens and the special effects. Once again, with that Disney money, this film has endless potential. My favorite, in fact, were the porgs, which were the little bird creature things that inhabited Luke's island. They were adorable, lovable, and most all, marketable. Imagine how much MORE money is going to be made solely off of their merchandise. I digress, but like any Star Wars film, the alien creatures were memorable and fun, which is more than I can say for a lot of films coming out today.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a great film and addition to its universe. The entire film was stolen by Mark Hamill, and I am not upset about that a bit. The special effects and story were done very well, and I would recommend this film to just about anyone, as long as they are a fan of the movies. Unlike me, if you couldn't already tell.

My Rating: 

No comments:

Post a Comment