The Last Jedi–Review

The story of how I saw the Last Jedi is a long and interesting one. Since this is a review on the actual movie as requested by my friend Windy, I’ll keep the details to a minimum, so I will say it involved large Egyptian style movie theaters and calling to make sure I didn’t have to preorder tickets.

Disclaimer: Five year olds were scrambling all over my lap as I watched the movie, and we had to sit front row, so I was basically staring up Princess Leia’s nostrils. These things may have deducted from the movie experience.

clears throat

Now I shall begin.

The first thing I noticed was that while a star battle was going on, we did NOT, as traditionally, see the underside of a Star Destroyer. These things irk my inner traditionalist self. Moving on.

Cons:

While I love the Last Jedi, there were a lot of problems.

Yes, I know, I’ll go as quickly as I can.

The Whole Resistance Subplot. It was horrible. All of it. Sucked. I was kind of watching everything with Rose, Finn, Poe (though the theme of Poe’s having-to-learn-before-he-becomes-a-leader thing was fine) and the stupid tracker on the Star Destroyer made me watch it all like

That was pretty much the worst thing. The worst thing, for which I deduct one and a half stars. They should have picked a far more original theme with the Resistance and not had the cliché, let’s fight the bad guys! thing.

Yoda’s Reappearance-Don’t get me wrong, I love Yoda just as much as the next person! I just feel like he should have gotten a little more of a grand return scene.  I don’t know. Just my own pet peeve.

Luke’s Death-I was a little confused. The scene where he died was perfect! You know, with the double suns and his music and everything—but how exactly did he die, if Kylo didn’t kill him? Exhaustion?

The Theme of the Light Side.  Okay…here is, where, morally, my biggest problem lies. Though this truth doesn’t apply to everything all the time, in the original movies, the theme of sacrifice—of Luke NOT giving into the Dark Side and killing Vader, of him not fighting, of him allowing himself to be persecuted—I felt like in the scene in Snoke’s throne room, Rey was seen as strong, but she was fighting. She wasn’t laying down her life sacrificially. And I guess, if anything, I’m a sucker for those tropes where there’s the classic, Christ-like theme of sacrifice. That was my biggest moral-ish problem.

 

Now, for the PROS:

Speaking of Sacrifice, even though I hated Substitute Commander Lady in the beginning (oh, how I hated her) I thought she taught a great lesson about the virtue of quiet sacrifice—when there’s no grand death, no glory, no feeling of victory—because our feelings isn’t what sacrifice is about. She was good for something, after all.

Luke’s Darker Side was so cool to explore. The way he almost killed Kylo? I felt like the Last Jedi added a deeper side to his character. Why did they have to kill him off!? Maybe for grandeur, but it’s such a waste. Now Mark Hamill is basically the only actor of the originals who’s alive, but they KILLED his character! Stupid moviemakers! They should have killed Leia instead.

Kylo Ren’s Deeper Side—wow, I’m just counting up the times I say “deep.” But it’s true. I like deep meaning, deep characters—when something means more than it seems on face value. Anyway, Kylo Ren, (simply by virtue of being an INFP) has always intrigued me as a villain. Seeing what made him do what he did was an interesting experience; and that there’s hope! He’s not completely bad! The way he displayed more strength, too (as in destroying his mask, killing Snoke, ect) made me respect him a lot more, too: The fact that he came to terms with the flimsy ways he tried to make himself feel strong and destroyed them. Not letting Snoke trash talk him heightened my respect as well. I hate it when anyone—people, characters—let others harass them, LET them—

And, last of all, because it wouldn’t be a real review if I didn’t say my favorite part,

REYLO!!!!! This literally made the whole movie worth it for me. Guys. You have no idea how happy my heart was when Kylo Ren and Rey fought off those Snoke guards, TOGETHER, and, also,

I mean, come on!! It is the most adorable thing everrrrr

One of my favorite things about Reylo happening would be that it’s never  happened before! I mean, we’ve never had, at least in a Star Wars movie, the interesting dilemma of a female protagonist and a male antagonist, actually liking each other. Plus, it would make Rey being a girl count for MUCH more than stupid political correctness, girls-can-do-anything thing I’m so bored of.

Okay, time to get off the computer now. Stay inspired!

-priscilla

kylo ren’s conflicted face. You can turn good you can do it!!!!