Two years of anticipation. Two years of fan theories, rumours and speculation. Two years of wondering what was going to happen in the moments after Rey held Luke’s old Lightsaber in her outstretched hand, and the old Jedi master responded with that stony, unreadable expression. The Last Jedi delivers everything you want from a Star Wars movie, fierce lightsaber action, space dogfights, exotic creatures, but layers it with story twists, character arcs and an emotional wallop that you could never have predicted. It doesn’t all work, but it’s a long time since a huge franchise movie has delivered the thrills and feels in such surprising ways. The Last Jedi's determination to move forward comes with good and bad consequences. On one hand, there are genuinely shocking moments in this movie. Characters you thought were good have a dark side. Those who should be wise act foolishly, and a single decent act doesn't suddenly make a bad guy good. If you think you know which way this thing will go purely on a narrative level, you're probably wrong. For a Star Wars movie, that unpredictability is refreshing.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi picks up more or less right where The Force Awakens left off. Rey has traveled to a distant corner of the galaxy to get Luke Skywalker back in the fight, and General Leia's Resistance alternately flees and fights the much more powerful First Order. Without the need to introduce so many new characters, The Last Jedi does what middle trilogy movies do: It lets us spend more time with those already established. Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) is still a hot-headed but skilled Resistance pilot registering stronger here than in The Force Awakens is both fly-boy and military leader, butting heads with Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo (Laura Dern). Finn (John Boyega) is struggling to find his place in the Resistance as a First Order deserter joins maintenance worker Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran) on a mission to disable the First Order’s tracking device that now works through hyperspace. Rey (Daisy Ridley) has quite a job convincing Luke (Mark Hamill) to come out of exile, while Kylo Ren (Adam Driver)--a.k.a. Ben Solo--battles his inner conflict, not to mention Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis) more formidable in person than in hologram and General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson). Leia (Carrie Fisher) leads the Resistance against overwhelming odds. Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie) is still to be honest pointless. Chewbacca is well Chewbacca, and even BB-8 gets bigger action licks rather than cute comedy asides.
Still, if Episode VII was Han Solo’s movie, then Episode VIII belongs to Luke. Whether it’s stepping back onto the Millennium Falcon reuniting with R2-D2, or learning to live with regrets, Hamill crafts in a moving performance, perfectly capturing how a gosh-and-golly farm boy can become sarcastic and embittered. Luke Skywalker's decades-long arc pays off in a way that Han Solo's, sadly, did not in The Force Awakens. Yet Luke's scenes never dissolve into pandering or fan service; in fact, his journey provides more surprises than any other plot in the movie. Carrie Fisher's performance comes with surprises too, The Last Jedi is a beautiful send-off for the iconic character and the actress who played her.
The action is thrilling but elegant (there is the most nonchalant lightsaber kill yet). He is not afraid to embrace the cornball, but never goes too cute: the Porgs are just as adorable as you hoped, but not as irritating as you feared are the butt of the film’s darkest gag. Hell, even the art of comedy ‘Imperial’ officers has returned. However it doesn’t all work, the middle section loses its shape. Finn and Rose’s mission takes them to Canto Bight, which seems to be to the Star Wars universe what the Capitol is to The Hunger Games. A ride on space horses also feels like a needless diversion, as does Benicio Del Toro’s space rogue, whose strange, laconic presence never really makes its mark. But The Last Jedi treats many of the series' vestiges with equal contempt, no matter how distant or relatively near in the past they are. More than one character or plot established in The Force Awakens gets unceremoniously blown up here. After Episode VII, this trilogy's path felt too familiar; now, it might go anywhere, but that's also made the whole endeavor feel shakier, like the plan might change again before it's all over. The plot being unpredictable is refreshing; axing entire storylines from The Force Awakens before they ever had a chance to pay off seems sloppy. That sounds harsh, but The Last Jedi gets many important things right too. Like The Force Awakens, it's beautiful to behold. It's also just the right amount of funny.
In its last hour, Johnson serves up bold, gut-wrenching narrative moves you should discover on your own. Throughout, there are beats from The Empire Strikes Back, a version of the Dark Side cave, walkers and speeders battling across a glacial plain, it’s a multicoloured adventure that juggles different moods and tones. Johnson even bravely channels Return Of The Jedi, to the extent that Episode VIII wraps up leaving Episode IX with almost a clean slate. And that, for an Act II, is no mean feat. Episode VII and, now, Episode VIII have accomplished something as difficult as it is crucial: They've made us care about a new generation of Star Wars heroes. Looking toward the past in these movies has been fun and emotional, but the new trilogy was always going to live or die by what it added to the series, not what it rehashed. And the journeys of characters like Rey and Ben Solo are starting to feel as nuanced and essential as those of Han, Luke, and Leia in the original trilogy. Regardless of where it ends, that's something to admire, and despite its issues, The Last Jedi overall is as enjoyable a Star Wars film as The Force Awakens was before it.
Easter Eggs
#1 Kylo and Rey connection
The dissolves between Kylo and Leia as they share a mental connection during the First Order’s retaliatory attack early in the film are the same as when Luke reaches out to Vader after their battle in The Empire Strikes Back.
#2 Luke's Injury
When Rey hands Luke his lightsaber, if you look closely at the back of his mechanical hand, it still has the same burn scar from when it was shot by a blaster bolt during the fight above the Sarlacc pit at the beginning of Return of the Jedi.
#3 Luke callbacks
During Luke’s final moments, he sees two setting suns, a direct visual callback to the binary sunset on Tatooine when his journey first began. Also, the Force-sensitive kid at the end looks up at the stars the same way a young Luke once looked off into that sunset, wistfully imagining a life full of adventure beyond his meager beginnings.
#4 Han's dice
Han Solo’s golden dice were originally seen in A New Hope (if you look super close in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon). Even though you can’t see them in The Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi, we’re assuming they were still there because they are back in The Force Awakens. Originally they were real dice painted gold, but for The Last Jedi they were redesigned to look more “Star Warsy” with symbols similar to those seen in use on Canto Bight.
#5 Cameos
In the scene where Finn and Rose are captured by the First Order, there are a few notable people who cameo as Stormtroopers. Reports say that Tom Hardy and English singer Gary Barlow are among them. Actor John Boyega revealed that British Princes William and Harry also filmed Stormtrooper cameos, but that they didn't make the final cut of the film. Justin Theroux appears as the Master Codebreaker that Maz Kanata instructed Poe, Finn and Rose to seek out for help.
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