Saw Last Jedi at the Midnight Premier last night.
StarWars, the Last Jedi: In the grim dark post-empire future of the StarWars universe, there is only war.
Interesting to note that all 15 theaters were showing it. There were NO lines. There were only a handful of 20-somethings dressed up in costumes...re-used from this past Halloween. Also apparently the "mid-night" premier showings had been going on ALL DAY yesterday, so many of the costumed ones I saw were little kids leaving the theater who had already seen the midnight premier at the 9pm show. A manager confirmed they had been going all day...and expected to make their yearly bank on this movie alone since the rest of the yr basically sucked.
Still, missing was a serious lack of the excitement and crazy nostalgia of prior releases. Where was everyone?
The movie itself was ...entertaining. It did take me back into the Star Wars universe for 120 minutes and it DID give me a few new things to see. It does seem that they are taking one movie at a time to kill off a main character from the original series...OK, I get it, it is time for a newer generation to take over the franchise and the old characters are ...well...old. Transition is needed and that is what they do here.
That was all The GOOD of the movie.
The BAD: What they do NOT do is add anything to the story...like who the HELL is SNOKE anyway and why is HE so powerful?? The movie attempts to ask some important questions (mostly Luke does) and manages to miss EVERY opportunity answer any of them. It also has all this rich material on the table and serves up none of it. Does this make it a bad movie? No. But it does make it a movie that could have been great and is not. Transition is one thing but when you miss the opportunity to paint any more background into the StarWars fabric, when you still have a few of the old actors around to flesh out some storyline and you do not, then what you get is a flashy picture book that is only 3 pages long and not very deep.
The Ugly: Apparently, if you are a complete incompetent fool you can go far in the military command of the Empire (or what is left of it) and the First Order. Admirals and Generals have all seemed to be promoted to their absolute level of incompetence. Even the most Badass Supreme Leaders suffer from it. And they once again cannot shake the protocol(s) of the "How to be an evil overlord" handbook...
This movie is NOT for adults. It really is not for kids under age 9 either--and not because of more adult themes or gory monsters, but more because of the lack of ANY themes. It would bore your 5-7 yr old and anyone younger than that will not understand why any of it is important or why we should care.
Actor Benicio del Toro makes an appearance...could he be "The Collector" in disguise and allow an Avengers cross-over? Hmmm,...but I digress. He and Carrie Fisher make for an interesting dialoge as each made a few well placed comments about the nature of conflict, who does the fighting and dying and why and who profits from it. For the entertainment value, the new ships and newly demonstrated "force" powers, I give it a 23.
MY CONCLUSION? : In the grim dark post-empire future of the StarWars universe, there is only war. {JB}