With the end of the year film season in full gear, we are being besieged with Hollywood's hopefuls for consideration. With all the biggest and best films replete with amazing writing, directing, acting and the like, this is also the time of year we are offered one or two big blockbuster, visual effects films to enjoy on the super large screens. So, what a better film to choose than that of "Star Wars: The Last Jedi".
Rey (Daisy Ridley) develops her newly discovered abilities with the guidance of a very reluctant Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), who is unsettled by the strength of her powers. Meanwhile, The resistance headed up by Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) and Vice Admiral Holder (Laura Dern) with the assistance of Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) and Finn (John Boyega), prepares to do battle with the first order who is headed up by Kylo Ren/Ben Solo (Adam Driver) and General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson). Will the resistance be able to ward off the tyrannies of the first order or be sent into oblivion?
Others to round out the cast are Andy Serkis as Snoke, Lupita Nyong'o as Maz Kanata, Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, Gwendoline Christie as Captain Phasma, Kelly Marie Tran as Rose Tico, Benicio Del Toro as DJ, Frank Oz as Yoda (voice of), Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca and Jimmy Vee as R2-D2.
This was cleverly directed by renaissance man Rian Johnson ("Brick" '05, "The Brother Bloom" '08, "Looper" '12) plus shorts and TV, based on characters created by George Lucas. Interestingly, this filmmaker typically focuses on quirky, independent films and shorts, so taking the helm on an extremely commercial film as with this, one can only imagine what must've been going on in the back of his mind. Certainly he gave this tired franchise new life again with a fresh, new take allowing these characters to come across more realistically than its predecessors. Please tell me Disney is bringing him back for the next installment. This was also written by Johnson (same films as directed). Again, if Disney is as smart as I hope they are, they will bring Johnson in to write the next installment as well. Even though this had a 152 minute running time, with the exception of a couple of small slow places in storyline, this story simply moved right along not realizing the length of it at all. This filmmaker is one to contend with for sure. And, of course, I can't stop this review without saying something about the visual effects by ILM (Industrial, Light & Magic). They were absolutely seamless as they are with all their films that they have been doing since their first film, the original "Stars Wars". If fact, speaking of "Stars Wars", that film's music was created by the legendary John Williams as with this film as well. As with the original, his score incredibly enhanced this film. It's as if one was blindfolded as this film played out, one could almost tell the story of the film just by listening to its score. You know who Williams is: Mr. "Close Encounters", :Raiders of the Lost Ark", Jaws", "Harry Potter", "Jurassic Park", "War Horse", "Lincoln", etc. He's also created the score for soon-to-be-released, "The Post" directed by Steven Spielberg, his collaborator for years.
If you're a "Star Wars" junkie, you'll get your fix and then some, but even if you're not, as with me, this is certainly the best installment since the original "Star Wars". It takes its audience into another world, place and time to get away from our problems for a 2-1/2 hour time slot, and isn't that what films are all about in the first place, especially when you can see it on an IMAX or 3D version to boot.
Out of 4 Stars: 3.5 Rated: PG-13 152mins.
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