Star Wars The Last Jedi redefined the new Star Wars movies because of it’s plot, character development, music, lighting, camera angles, filming sites, and dialogue. This all paid off big time when The Last Jedi made $45 million on Thursday night and $104.8 million Friday night. The Last Jedi did not only make a lot of money, but it made fans and reviewers jump for joy by getting a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 8/10 on IMDB.
The premise of the movie is that Rey is being trained to be a Jedi to help the dying Resistance fight The First Order, that is growing in size and power. We also learn more about some of the main characters.
We see a lot more of General Leia in the Last Jedi then we did in The Force Awakens. We see her commanding the Resistance on the Resistance’s flag ship the Raddus. We always knew Leia had a connection to the force but this is the first time we see her manipulate the force to perform a force ability.
Not only did Carrie Fisher give an excellent performance as Leia but so did Leia’s twin brother Luke Skywalker, played by Mark Hamill. Skywalker was different mentally than in the other films. After attempting to train Kylo Ren and failing he is scared to to train the new generation of Jedi again and get involved with the resistance’s fight against The First Order.
This is very different than his younger self we saw in the original trilogy. His younger self was always ready for action and whenever there was evil to be fought he wanted to be right in the front of the action. Now he wants to distance himself from it as much as possible.
Now, normally there are the three big Star Wars characters, which are Leia, Luke, and Han. They still have Leia and Luke but with Han gone they needed a cocky, and talented, high flying pilot. Luckily that role is filled by Poe Dameron played by Oscar Isaac. He is the Han Solo for the new generation. We see him in the opening scene flying around the Supremacy taking down the turrets and dodging Tie Fighters against Leia’s orders to fall back. He also disobeyed Admiral Holdo’s orders and even held her at gunpoint at one point. For what he thought was the right thing to do.
One of the newer but more prominent characters in the Star Wars universe is Rey played by Daisy Ridley. Rey has always been eager to take down the First Order and figure out who her parents are. The Last Jedi shows these two events even more than The Force Awakens did. We get to see her more on her quest to find out who her parents are. More importantly we see her pestering Luke to train her and jumping right at any possibility to get in a fight with The First Order.
On the Resistance is Finn, played by John Boyega. While we see him later in the film, this does not take away from his great performance. We see him startled to find the Resistance in a very sticky situation and he jumps right in to do what he can to help. He helps the Resistance make plans with his large knowledge of The First Order. He also goes on a secret mission with the new character Rose.
Rose, played by Kelly Marie Tran, gave an excellent performance. Rose gave us an inside look on how the lives lost during this long period of war really affects their family members. The mission she goes on with Finn showcases new aliens and new places. It is also cool to see how this character isn’t a hero because she’s an aerial ace or a Jedi but instead a mechanic.
Switching from good to evil, we see General Hux, played by Domhnall Gleeson, leading the First Order. It’s funny to see how strict he is with the stormtroopers and officers but when it’s time to face big boss Snoke, he nervously melts down. He provides strong leadership to The First Order without being a sith or even force sensitive at all.
Someone who is force sensitive though, is Kylo Ren, played by Adam Driver. Ren starts to be a bit more power hungry than he was in The Force Awakens. It seems as if he is getting annoyed of being a pawn in Snoke’s game. We see him also trying to prove his strength to Snoke.
Speaking of Snoke, we see him played by Andy Serkis, leading Kylo Ren and General Hux. We start to get a sense of just how powerful Snoke is. We see how scared Kylo and Hux get when they fail Snoke so they obviously respect him. We also see he is important enough to have his own private guards.
Those guards give us in an insight into more kyber crystal weapons with each one having a cool and unique weapon. My personal favourite being the lightsaber whip. Viewers should note that these guards are more powerful than Emperor Palpatine’s personal elite bodyguards.
To compliment all of this action there was great music. John Williams brings the sad scenes sadder, and the inspiring scenes more inspiring, and the happy scenes happier with his magic of music. Without the music the plot would lose it’s magic. With any great Star Wars movie there has to be great music and John Williams delivers.
To accompany the great music is the great lighting and camera angles. The lighting is interesting because of how it can quickly change the mood of a scene without sound. With dim lighting and bright lighting and colorful lighting it makes the different places in the movie more distinguishable. The camera angles are neat in the way of how quickly they change. From making one character look powerful to make another seem worthless. The lighting and camera angles gives a whole new dimension to the Last Jedi movie.
The use of music, lighting, and the camera angles in interesting filming sites brings the different worlds and planets to life. The Star Wars franchise is unique because it showcases some of the most beautiful places on Earth including filming sites in Ireland and the United States, to name just a few from The Last Jedi.
The one problem I had with the film was in just the very few opening scenes of the movie was the excessive amount of comedy. Now, I personally feel that the comedy in Star Wars is a good thing and it builds the atmosphere. However, I feel that in the first few scenes of The Last Jedi the excessive comedy detracts from the film. Though other than the first few scenes, the dialogue was great.
Rian Johnson, the director of The Last Jedi, is comparable to George Lucas in the way he can create a compelling Star Wars film that fans just love. With it being my new favourite Star Wars movie I recommend that everybody should see it at least once.
