Fellmans Movie Reviews

RED = SPOILERS:

The Last Jedi isn’t as bad as the other two sequels. It isn’t as great as the rest of the movies. But it’s not that bad. It’s moving on from the absolute rehashing of A New Hope that The Force Awakens tries to pull and it creates an actual story. There are some who say that it ruins the character of Luke Skywalker. I don’t think it does. I can see how Ben Solo turning to the dark side COULD happen. But when you follow the thought process of Luke to the logical conclusion, if he really was worried THAT MUCH about Ben being so powerful that he decided to kill him in his sleep, why would he just stand there, debating about it like a toddler in an ice cream shop? He would’ve just ran in there, and cut his head off as fast as he possibly could. Bing, bang, boom. No more new Vader… But, no. He just stood there, looking at him, like “Uhh… I think I’m gonna kill you now…” And so Ben had time to defend himself. It’s no wonder Luke exiled himself to Ahch-To. It really is his fault…

What’s it about? Getting on to Episode 8: The Last Jedi. This movie is about Rey, making contact with Luke Skywalker on the island of Ahch-To, where he’s exiled himself to try and end the Jedi. Meanwhile, the Resistance is trying to escape Snoke’s ship, which can somehow track them through lightspeed. Finn and a mechanic named Rose come up with a plan to stop Snoke’s ship from tracking them, while Rey learns the ways of the Jedi from Luke. She also begins to connect with Kylo Ren through the Force for some unexplained reason. Luke trains Rey. Kylo and Rey kill Snoke. The Resistance gets away from the First Order. Some kid stands in a barn, looking up at the night sky at the end. 

What’s good? This is the one sequel I don’t mind. It’s its own story. Even though the characters are still reboots from the original movies, at least this one has its own thing going on. The beginning is kind of funny, with Poe playing the joke on Hux over the speakers to distract them. That’s a good bit. And the arc with Kylo and Rey is pretty interesting as well. 

What’s bad? Porgs… They’re everywhere… It was just the next gen attempt at Ewoks… But aside from that, I guess it’s just the general vagueness that is used with “The Force”. It just hardly has any meaning anymore. It’s like a buzzword.  

The acting? The acting is good. There’s nothing wrong with it, I suppose. I’d give it an “A” grade. Good jobs all around… 

The effects? It’s Star Wars. When is a Star Wars movie not going to have the greatest special effects? Star Wars practically means special effects. Of course they’re fantastic.  

Leia’s Mary Poppins Bit. When Leia gets sucked out into space and does her Mary Poppins impression to get back to the ship and get rescued, that’s a huge suspension of disbelief on the part of the viewer. Because she was out in space for like three or four minutes. Not only is it sub-zero temperatures in space, but there’s no air… She would be frozen and suffocated in the time it took her to hang out, drift away, and then float back. But it takes away from the movie if you’re gonna go over it with a fine-tooth comb… 

How many transports did they launch? They spent the better part of the second act getting those transport ships destroyed. It seemed like one got blown up every minute or so. You’d think they’d run out of ships pretty quickly… But apparently not. Just keep on going. These new Porgs will protect us… 

Force Projection Inconsistencies. When Luke shows up as a force projection, he hands Leia a set of Han’s dice. But if he’s a force projection, how did he hand them to her? They weren’t solid. What was she taking hold of? What did Ren pick up when they disappeared from his hand at the end after Luke disappeared while sitting on the alter on Ahch-To?  

Where did Rey get the texts from if Yoda blew the tree up with them inside of it? How did the sacred Jedi texts get from inside the tree that Yoda blew up to the drawer inside the Millennium Falcon at the end of the movie? When Finn is getting a blanket for Rose, you can see the sacred texts in the drawer of the nightstand. Where did they come from? 

Once again, Ren is the worst Sith ever. He gets beaten with force powers by somebody that has no practice in using their force powers whatsoever. He’s supposed to be this ultra-powerful Sith Lord. He’s not. He’s a whiny toddler that throws hissy fits and loses to people that just learned how to do stuff… 

So, maybe it’s not great. But it’s not awful. I don’t hate this one. It’s at least watchable. But now, we move on to the final episode in the Star Wars marathon. Episode 9: The Rise of Skywalker. And as always, May the Force Be With You…