Movie Review: Star Wars Last Jedi

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening....whenever it is you have come across this review.  Today I'm talking about the latest in the never-ending Star Wars series...thank you Disney!

THE UGLY

There isn't a lot I can put in here.  My biggest complaint is that it is long.  I feel that it needs to have between 20-30 minutes shaved off.  I would not cut any scenes completely but several of them could have been shortened.  I call them the "Star Wars" scenes where they do long panning shots of several weird creatures to fit into the world.

THE BAD

The writing and acting is still lacking but note nearly as bad as Episode 1-3.  What is sad is that it is the main actors that suffer the most.  Ben and Rey are the two that suffer the most from the bad writing I think.  Several times during their interactions it felt...I guess I would say forced.  Unlike some of the other actors the interactions just did not feel real.  It is too bad because you get glimpses from Rey that there is more there but then the bad writing and what I call "Gal Godat" face, you know the one where it is anger/bitch face no matter what the scene calls for.  Rey suffers from that to a certain extent.  It is also weird to say that the two main characters are also, in my opinion, the two worst performers in the flick.

It is weird that Godat is like that in the movies because she isn't outside of the movies

THE GOOD

The one thing that struck me in this flick was that the pacing, for the most part, was very good.  While I said it was long the pacing was very well done.  At no point was I begging for it to end which is good for me.  I find that anything over 90 minutes and I start to get antsy most of the time.  I thought that Mark Hamill and Domhnall Gleeson, who is General Hux, were easily the stars in my opinion.  Gleeson was fantastic and I am not sure I have seen him in anything else.

The story itself was a nice departure from Star Wars where it actually felt like there was a story here.  Unlike 7 this felt like a new story.  Sure it had elements of all Star Wars film but one thing about these flicks is that they do have the basics of story telling down well, even if often paint by numbers in my opinion.

Looking for pictures and what not from the film I might have been a little hard on Rey and her facial expressions.  While watching the film I felt like she made one or two faces and that was it.  I could be wrong there.

Bottom line is that this was easily my favorite Star Wars flick.  While that is like saying you are the thinest kid at fat camp it is still some praise!

Over on IMDB it currently has a 7.8 (as of 12/19/17) and I agree it is between a 7 and a 8.  Since I am pretty hard on these flicks and I did enjoy it I will go on the over and say 8.  Worth checking out because it is a good film with a good story and decent acting.  It made me interested in the next flick, number 9, so it did its job.  

Good grief I forgot one major thing in the ugly!  At no point, not once, did Hamill laugh like the Joker. I am sorry but if I hear Hamill and do NOT get to hear the Joker laugh that is a major ugly moment for me!