Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

BORING, and probably the first SW film I won't ever bother watching a second time.

The explanation I often hear parroted out verbatim of how deep and clever it is, is,"the theme is failure. Yoda even states it." Well, I don't think that simply making a broad concept a theme by having lots of examples of it in a film is particularly clever. I'm not convinced that is what they were doing - I could easily argue the theme is anger because lots of characters are angry, or point out that Batman Begins had the theme "we fall down so we can get back up." But if it is what they were doing, it still ended up in a very frustrating, dull film to watch because it was just lots of characters on both sides either saying "why can't we do this?" or "well that didn't work" all the way through.

The deconstructing Star Wars stuff doesn't convince me either. "The Jedi were hugely flawed" - yeah, that was the clever thing the prequels did. "The Force isn't a binary good or bad thing, it's neutral" - yep, always assumed it was. "Anyone can be a Jedi or use the Force" - I assumed this too, as there's nothing in the OT to contradict it (outside of the ambiguity of "the Force is strong in this one") and we see various species of Jedi and lots of younglings in training, I never thought the Jedi spent all their time roaming the galaxy scanning two-year-olds for midichlorians.

The stuff about undercutting expectations didn't work too well for me either. SPOILERS FROM HERE The big one is the reveal that Rey's parents were nobodies, it was a fake mystery. Now, that in itself I think is pretty cool, but the way they did the reveal - still not showing their faces, having Ren tell her the details - gave me the impression that this is a bluff or at least leaving themselves an escape route to change their minds. Also, it was in a film that did lots of this, like Snoke getting zero explanation before getting swept away (and this is different to the Emperor in ROTJ because Snoke shows up between episodes whereas the Emperor is an existing background part of the world from early on in New Hope, as well as a logical extension of the Empire, and there are specifics gaps of knowledge with Snoke like how he turned Ren to such a degree), getting rid of Luke with a crappy death etc, so for me it got drowned in a film full of frustrations.

I personally would have beefed up the Luke-Rey-Ren-Snoke stuff and cut everything else hella down. Perhaps give Leia a crew of Finn, Poe and BB-8 and a mission also involving Ren (or at least his ship) so she gets some proper SW stuff to do, it all feels tied into the other plotline and Phasma can be given a proper role rather than being another set-up swept away (with perhaps Domhnall Gleeson getting more to do as well?). I really liked the moment of Ren trying to build himself up to killing Leia then some other fighters doing it while he was still wavering - it was an interesting note that he had more trouble with that than with his dad, and then it got out of his control and happened anyway.
Rating: Bad