+ Best Movie of the Year
+ Best 3D Movie of the Year + Best Adventure of the Year + Best American Movie of the Year + Best Blockbuster of the Year + Shooting Star Actress of the Year: Kelly Marie Tran + Most Profitable Movie of the Year
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| Several key characters and visuals of Rian Johnson's Star Wars: The Last Jedi are teased on this grand, marvelous poster |
Rey has found Luke Skywalker isolated on a rough island and is looking for answers. Meanwhile the Rebel Resistance, headed by General Leia Organa, face overwhelming opposition from the destructive First Order, led by Supreme Leader Snoke, Kylo Ren and General Hux.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a far cry from the dismal, calculated bummer that was last year's first lone-standing 'Star Wars Story', following Disney's costly acquisition of the sci-fi franchise, Rogue One (2016). This instead follows right in the tracks of J.J. Abrams' great Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) - aka Episode VII. Star Wars: The Last Jedi is written and directed by Marylander master filmmaker Rian Johnson (Looper (2012)), based on George Lucas' characters.
Johnson does just about everything right here and makes a Star Wars film that's as overwhelmingly great and sharp as to dethrone Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) as the best Star Wars film to date. - The Last Jedi is now it!
So: What's so great about it?
Story is always at the center of a true masterpiece, and The Last Jedi relies on not one but several very exciting storylines, told with uniformly highly engaged and engaging performances:
Daisy Ridley (Murder on the Orient Express (2017)) is still a terrific new lead for the franchise as Rey, who is up against both a regretful, surrendered Skywalker, - Mark Hamill (Sushi Girl (2012)) gives a deeply felt performance in the most important part in his career here, - and the angry, seductive Kylo Ren, whom she defeated for a spell at The Force Awaken's conclusion. - Adam Driver (Paterson (2016)) is magnetic in the part, which is effectively torn here in what is Last Jedi's primary edge-of-your-seat plot-line: Kylo Ren's loyalty; will Rey be able to shift it? While I found this interminable until it is actually determined, (at least for now), the film offers so much more, too:
Carrie Fisher (Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)), together with Hamill, carry the film's main emotional core ahead, making Last Jedi the most emotionally charged Star Wars movie to date. Laura Dern (October Sky (1999)) is perfectly cast as Vice Admiral Holdo, who commands the Resistance's main spaceship for a while as popular jet-fighter Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac (Won't Back Down (2012)) opposes her leadership. Dern adds another layer - and another kick-ass performance, - to the film and her career.
Besides the tears that these emotionally wringing characters and situations cause, Last Jedi also offers compelling adventure and laughs and good times aplenty:
John Boyega (Attack the Block (2011)) returns as rebel Finn, who gets a new, resourceful, brave partner now in a Resistance maintenance worker, Rose, who is portrayed with admirable determination and charisma by Kelly Marie Tran (Untouchable (2011)). Their adventure, which is about getting them into the First Order's main ship to upend their advantage, takes them to a casino on the planet Canto Bight, where one of the film's greatest sequences takes place, as they survey, get imprisoned and break out of jail there in riveting style.
Andy Serkis' (Sugarhouse (2007)) eerie, motion-captured Snoke villain gets more space here, while Lupita Nyong'o's (12 Years a Slave (2013)) funny Maz Kanata alien character only appears very shortly. The film contains a short surprise revisit from a major character of Star Wars, which is too amazing for me to spoil here and only adds to the gleeful, dramatic magic that already surrounds the film. Domhnall Gleeson (About Time (2013)) is still an ideal General Hux, the fascist leader caught between two meaner, more powerful and passionate villains in the First Order.
Last Jedi features vast amounts of stunning, funny and wowing practical - and digital - effects and creatures small and large to satisfy that particular need, as well as a climax that is both a high-note for the narrative as well as visually arresting. All of this to another grand, heart-thumping score from John Williams (Story of a Woman (1970)).
Star Wars: The Last Jedi is, quite simply, a spirited, unadulterated joy from beginning to end.
Related posts:
The Star Wars franchise: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) or, Ginny's Fate: A Star Wars Calculation
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) - Abrams scores big time, makes beautiful space opera blockbuster
Rian Johnson: Top 10: Best franchise movies
2017 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2017 in films - according to Film Excess
Top 10: Best future-set movies
Looper (2012) - Time traveling assassinations have never been hipper or more exciting!
Cost: 200 mil. $
Box office: 573.7 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say
[Star Wars: The Last Jedi premiered 9 December (Los Angeles) and runs 152 minutes. Johnson was also considered to direct The Force Awakens. He has described writing the film as a joyous experience, being a childhood fan of the Star Wars universe. Shooting took place from September 2015 (second-unit work on Skellig Michael, Ireland, posing for Skywalker's island) with principal photography running February - July 2016 in Croatia, Ireland, Bolivia and in Pinewood Studios, England with some sequences shot with IMAX cameras and a reported 125 sets built. Carrie Fisher sadly passed away Dec. 27 2016 of cardiac arrest, (her also movie icon actress mother Debbie Fisher passed away just the next day from a severe stroke), and the film is dedicated to Carrie Fisher, whose Princess Leia has also now been recognized as an official Disney princess. The film opened #1 to a 220 mil. $ first weekend in North America, only bested by The Force Awakens' 247.9 mil. $. Its world opening of 450.8 mil. $ was the 5th biggest of all time. It has yet to open in China, its last market, where it will roll out 5 January. It is reported to break even at 800 mil. $, figuring in massive marketing costs. The next of the central arc films, Episode IX, lost its director Colin Trevorrow earlier this year, as his latest film The Book of Henry (2017) flopped massively, and Force Awakens' helmer Abrams has been hired for the film instead, for a Dec. '19 release. Johnson is slated to write a new Star Wars trilogy, following the end of the first six slated films in the new roster, as well as direct its first film. Star Wars: The Last Jedi is certified fresh at 93 % with a 8.1/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Star Wars: The Last Jedi?
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