- By and large the first 60-90 minutes are pretty mediocre but the final hour (whenever Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley finally connected) is superb.
- Chief amongst the elements I want to praise is the use of the color red. Again, I wish Johnson had just done it throughout the entire film—- Snoke’s throne room, his guards, that long scene where he’s killed, and the salt mine sequences are just saturated in the color and I can’t help but think of Zhang Yimou Hero (2002). Now, the great Chinese auteur did it for the entire running time and Johnson does it for like 25% of the movie -but still- superbly done and quite gorgeous.
Driver’s performance, his relationships (with Hamill, Ridley) and the entire Kylo Ren character (beating up things like Charles Foster Kane) and character arc are right up there with the use of color amongst things I’d like to praise.
the salt mine sequences are just saturated in the color
very high highs, and very low lows in Rian Johnson’s film
- The throne room production design (this is by Rick Heinrichs- who worked on Sleepy Hollow (1999)), and Thor: Ragnarök (also 2017) owe a great deal to Flash Gordon (1980)- which is camp, and that’s clearly more of what Johnson is going for in half the tone.
exemplary production design in the throne room- by Rick Heinrichs
- Driver’s performance, his relationships (with Hamill, Ridley) and the entire Kylo Ren character (beating up things like Charles Foster Kane) and character arc are right up there with the use of color amongst things I’d like to praise. He’s a brilliant actor- and every scene he’s in is a highlight. On the downside, the scenes without him (with the exclusion of the Ridley/Hamill story) suffer.
Great wide angle shots of the final duel
- Johnson also keeps his voice and stamp on the film in other ways- he clearly has the “rainmaker” moment (like from 2012’s Looper) with Ridley raising the rocks and the reaction shots (great sequence) of those she saves. There’s a “this rainmaker could go either way” duality to her. I love it—it’s a Disney Star Wars- but also his film. Perhaps I’m reading too much into it but watch the scene with Yoda burning down the sacred old texts—perhaps that Rian Johnson here a bit.
- I also like the final epilogue with the kid with the ring—thought it was a very nice ending.
- There are some issues to the film as well and they include the first hour which is largely is comprised of loud noises and nonsense. It reminded me of a weaker Bong film—maybe Okja – with the wild swings in tone and genre, lines and inane dialogue that would make the writers of a Fast and the Furious sequel cringe, etc. He’s a great actor but I thought the opening prank call (“tooling”) and the entire character of Domhnall Gleeson would fit better in Mel Brooks’ Spaceballs.
- I don’t understand the casting of Serkis as Snoke at all. Why you’d want your arch-villain sounding like Gollum from another wildly popular and successful franchise is beyond me.
- The scene where Hamill wipes his shoulder off as to show Driver’s Ren that he’s unharmed is awful—though I will say it is consistent- he also flips the lightsaber over his shoulder into the ocean early. This quirkiness, Johnson’s efforts to diffuse the more dramatic moments, is curious.
- I would’ve cut the entire Boyega and Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran) story out– Benicio Del Toro’s role/character is an unmitigated disaster
- I like Justin Chang’s LA Times review— really liked the film but not the “somewhat forced moments of cutesy comic relief”—he had the same problem of like the 10 reaction shots from the mini-ewoks – Chang gives it a 4-start review but keeps it off his top 12 of the year (it does make his list of honorable mention) and honorable mention is I think where I have it
- Recommend
How do people on this site feel about Star Wars in general. Me, i love it. especially the prequels but also the first three. i thought the disneys were mostly cash grabs but that last jedi had some extraordinary moments in it. rogue one was fun as well to see with friends even if far from a great movie. i think star wars prequels raised it to much more than escapism with their dramatic depth, worldbuilding, and political/romantic themes, while i love the serialization of the originals. plus the sun set scene from 1977 is just stunning and john williams score is mindblowing. plus they did this terrific show leading up to revenge of the clone wars, a cartoon version not enough people have seen that kind of works like a movie. of course i can’t spell childhood without ‘jedi’. what would you say are the 10 or so best performances in the series.
i would say:
natalie portman 1
hayden christensen 2
alec guinness 3
ian mcdiarmid 4
ewan mcgregor 5
samuel jackson/christopher lee 6
james earl jones 7
liam neeson 8
harrison ford 9
mark hamill 10
@D.W.Griffith- thanks for sharing your thoughts– what struck me most here is Harrison Ford so low… you contrast that with say Hayden Christensen so high (unless I’m looking at this upside down)— anyways- you’d get a strong disagree from me here
Technically there’s no actual given that these performances are listed in any order, but so long as they are, and the lower number is better, I’m with you on this one.
also what would be people’s rankings of the films, including disney movies and if you’ve seen them the shows. for me it would be
1. revenge
2. attack of the clones
3. return of the jedi
4. phantom menace
5. star wars
6. empire
7. clone wars 2003
8.last jedi
9 clone wars 2008 show
10.rogue one
11. clone wars 2008 movie
12.force awakens
13.star wars rebels
14.rise of the skywalkers (trash)
15. solo the star wars story by ron howard (bottom of the barell)
@D.W.Griffith – To each their own, but this is one of the weirdest Star Wars rankings I’ve ever seen.
Ranking of Movies :
MP :
1 – The Empire Strikes Back
2 – Star Wars
HR :
3 – Return of the Jedi
4 – Revenge of the Siths
R :
5 – The Phantom Menace
6 – Attack of the Clones
7 – Rogue One
8 – The Force Awakens
9 – The Last Jedi (good looking movie but I just hate the story, flying Leia)
Not in the Archives :
10 – Rise of the Skywalker
11 – Solo
Ranking of Performances :
1. Harrison Ford (Empire)
2. James Earl Jones (Empire)
3. Alec Guinness (Star Wars)
4. Mark Hamill (Return)
5. Carrie Fisher (Empire)
6. Ewan McGregor (Attack)
7. Billy Dee Williams (Empire)
8. Ian McDiarmid (Revenge)
9. Liam Neeson (Phantom)
10. Frank Oz (Empire)
Love the first two films, some good ideas in the Return & the Prequels but too many fails (writing, acting, some things that doesn’t work in the story).
Hate the sequels.
@kidcharlamagne thank you for the input. that is a good list of movies and acting. i think that pauline kael may have been right when she called jedi a ‘pretty junky piece of filmmaking’. there were some shining moments but it just wasn’t great filmmaking and felt unimaginative. i think lucas was like the david selznick controlling the films and they were all kind of his. as for harrison ford, he is brilliant in star wars and definitely a great actor but i think of him as better in indiana jones and blade runner (the latter an underrated performance). and i think i might move down liam neeson and sam jackson/chris lee in retrospect. i hate the disney ones too. i think they lack imagination but rogue one as i said was enjoyable. last jedi was really well made but not perfect. i guess i liked the worldbuilding in it as well as mark hamill adam driver and some other acting. rise of the skywalker feels barely like a film, more like a fan fiction. i also don’t like rey as the chosen one because to me the chosen one is anakin
1. The Empire Strikes Back
2. A New Hope
3. The Last Jedi
4. The Force Awakens
5. Return of the Jedi
6. Rogue One
7. Revenge of the Sith
8. Solo
9. The Rise of Skywalker
10. The Phantom Menace
11. Attack of the Clones
@Matt Harris thank you for sharing the list. Can I ask why you have last jedi so high. Not everyone would be there I don’t think. Also how would you rank the top ones on your list (mp, ms, hr…?)
I would’ve made my own list but it’s pretty much exactly the same as this lol. Switch Rogue One and ROTS, maybe even have TROS as the worst one. But generally the same.
Sure @m I’d be happy to! It’s pretty straightforward, the Last Jedi features the best filmmaking in the entire series by the best visual stylist to ever to take the helm of one of the films. Additionally, in Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren, it also features the strongest performance in any film in the series. I would rate the top 2 films on my list MPs, with The Last Jedi at least verging on that rating as well.
Definite agree! The visuals in TLJ are fantastic and I would have to say the best in the series, followed by ESB. There are elements of the story I like (the Rey and Kylo Ren segments) and parts I don’t especially care for (Finn’s entire storyline is godawful, and as somebody else mentioned the flying Leia is not great either), and while it’s not as derivative as TFA (not that I don’t like it), there are segments that are very obviously taken from ESB, like Rey training with Luke (Dagobah, though it’s forgivable given a Jedi needs training), the casino planet (which is such a terrible segment I really just want to forget about it, I mean what were they thinking with del Toro’s character, what a massive waste of an actor), and Crait is obviously derived from Hoth. I don’t hate Dern’s character as much as most but I feel it would’ve worked better and been received more favorably with Admiral Ackbar instead. The comic relief moments Drake mention are very Joss Whedon and as a result very awful. Regardless, there is a hell of a lot of good here, visually it is fucking astounding to look at (that scene where Holdo flies the ship into the First Order fleet is WOW! And let’s not even get started on the Throne Room), and its a more thoughtful movie than TFA. A lot of Fandom Menacers hate what they did to Luke in this film but I love the complexity it brought to the character and I don’t think any of his actions in this movie are particularly out of character at all. I’d probably slap an HR on there, maybe even an MS sometime in the future but the bad in this movie really does weigh it down.
@Zane I agree the good outweighs the bad in last jedi. Drake is right in pointing out the use of red in the film but also the polished nature of many of the scenes such as the magnificent throne room. And the final fight was amazing. Flying Leia was awful and Laura dern was a waste of a great actress. The casino planet I actually enjoyed quite a bit though.
@Zane I agree with some of what you say, but I’m perplexed by the Joss Whedon reference. He has no involvement in this series, and other than a lamentable punch-up job on a no doubt terrible Justice League script, has no reputation for bad comic relief, so why bring him up?
Very hard disagree on “no reputation for bad comic relief”, you clearly haven’t seen enough people talk about him, but I digress.
I like the inversion of the ending of ROTJ where Ren kills Snoke just as Vader killed Palpatine, but instead of turning to the light, Ren only does it to gain further Dark side power. Also I rethought the film and I’d agree with you that it’s a MS.
No, HR, Finn’s story kills it. God, this debate will never end. How can a film do so many things well and then drop the ball on the other half of it?
star wars the first film I’d say is one of the best because it gave us something we have never seen before on film with a childlike imagination. Same reason I love temple of doom. I would not use the words escapism more like childlike wonder. What are your top 5 movie brat films (scorsese spielberg coppola de palma and lucas)
Hey Drake, have you read the script written by Colin Trevorrow for his planned Star Wars film Duel of the Fates? I don’t have a great opinion of Trevorrow as a director (The Book of Henry is completely insane) but his screenplay for his film blew me away, and that’s not just because it was so soon after TROS and I put it on a pedestal because of that; it genuinely does make the Sequel trilogy a cohesive story, and its also highly original for SW on top of that.
Also, what would you think of a SW film directed by Guillermo del Toro? His profile was too low to have taken on the Prequels (as sad as it is; I think he would’ve improved them immensely) but by the Sequels he was a highly established director and was considered for the chair before they gave it to Abrams.
[…] Star Wars: The Last Jedi – Johnson […]
As a student of cinema I agree that the presence of a legitimate stylistic vision in this one prevents it from being completely unredeemable, but as a Star Wars fan just thinking about this movie (and the other sequels) provokes my regurgitative impulses. Perhaps they were at an immediate disadvantage because this was a franchise which had set an incredibly high standard for characterization and storytelling; nearly every character and every narrative inflection of the original trilogy, and some of the prequel trilogy, is a deeply ingrained aspect of international popular culture, so it’s a pretty high standard. But this, along with the other sequels, is just the absolute apotheosis of abysmal plotting and characterization; basically the entire process of writing these films was to castrate and/or kill off all of the original, beloved, unassailable characters and replace them with boring, poorly developed, forgettable characters (yes, including Kylo Ren, who, though I admit he is in the hands of an immensely talented actor, has an arc which literally consists of killing his father because…wait for it… HE WANTS TO BE EVIL! But then not killing his mother because… wait for it… HE’S NOT THAT EVIL! what a coup de maitre of writing) This is the same franchise which gave us “No, I am your father” and yet 90% of the memorable aspects of these sequels are only memorable because they are apocalyptically idiotic and pointless, like flying Leia, or Luke milking cow-giraffe-manatee tits, or the mind numbingly dull and unnecessary alien Monte Carlo subplot, which turned into an even more unnecessary animal cruelty PSA, or Laura Dern’s character even existing. These abominations have really made me appreciate the prequels more because in spite of their flaws they at least made some positive contributions to the lore, such as the fascinating concept of Order 66 and clones struggling with their free will (more thoroughly explored in the Dave Filoni Clone Wars TV show) or compelling characters like Count Dooku and Qui Gon Jin, etc; I don’t believe the same can be said for any of the sequel trilogy.