Saw this on its initial midnight showings here in the UK.
This film does some stuff that surpised me in a good way, there are some fantastic performances and visuals and and theres some stuff that I thought was a little disappointing too.
I thought that the standout performances come from Mark Hamill and Adam Driver.
The film follows directly on from TFA, starting with the Resistance evacuating their base as the First Order are on their way to retaliate for the destruction of the Starkiller base.
We then move on to Lukes island as Rey hands him his lightsaber.
Luke wants nothing to do with her and wants her to leave, he doesn't train her. Rey is good here as she wants Luke to help her understand her powers. They also really go somewhere dark when Luke does ask her to open her mind to the force and she embraces the dark side which is present on the island in the form of a similar dark side cave to the one on Dagobah. But disappointingly they don't really explore this further. We get to hear and see how Luke tried to kill Ben Solo when he discovers he is turning to the dark side, but he also blames himself for that happening. Luke is very broken. We get a Yoda cameo too. We see the Jedi archives that Luke has and we hear him decrying the Jedi order for the mistake they made with Anakin and then him with Ben Solo. Theres some kind of force connection between Kylo and Rey and they can communicate, I can see this being a divisive plot point with the die hards. Luke discovers this and orders her to leave the island, she believes she can turn Kylo back and goes to him. This is all a plan from Snoke to draw her out so he can find out where Luke is and then kill her. |
I really liked the Snoke character, evil with a great look and I wanted to know more about him.
But I was surprised that Snoke is killed by Kylo Ren halfway through. The ensuing lightsaber fight where he teams up with Rey to defeat Snokes guards was good and also unexpected too. They turn on each other at the end as he wants her to join him, but she leaves Kylo unconscious, at this point Rey basically disappears from the movie until the end battle on Crait where she pops up in the Falcon with Chewie. |
In between all this....
The First Order are pursuing whats left of The Resistance, which is basically Leias cruiser. She is out of action due to being injured but then comes to life in a ridiculous scene. The only way for the Resistance to be able to flee successfully is if they can disable the FO's tracking ability. |
So in order to accomplish this they send Finn to the casino planet Canto Bight. This was my main downside of the story
ultimately this side adventure is pointless as they fail in their mission, all it is there to do is set up Benicio Del Toros character to double cross them and help the First Order discover the Resistance ships fleeing the main cruiser to the nearby planet of Crait |
Visually the end battle on Crait looks fantastic with its red planet surface, it has elements of the Hoth battle and also some elements of the Jedi space battle in the Death Stars superstructure too.
Luke using the force to project himself on to Crait to then confront Kylo in a lightsaber face off was a surprise and his supposed death from using the force to do that wasn't the way I expected Luke to go out. That was a touch disappointing I thought. |
Also...
I can't see anything other than a CGI Leia in IX, she is alive and well at the end of TLJ and part of the small band that escape the First Order on Crait |
I'll be seeing it again over Christmas, its a good film that rattled by considering its nearly 2.5 half hours long. My first impression was that it wasn't as immediate as TFA or RO, theres lots going on and lots to think about too, especially because of the story choices they make. I can see elements of it being either loved or hated with no inbetween.