I always enjoy these, and Daisy Ridley as Rae is terrific. ( )

I'm very conflicted about this film. On the one hand, I applaud Johnson's clear desire to do something new and different in the Star Wars saga, to build on the oh-so-safe rehash film that Force Awakens was with a film that is unexpected and goes in innovative directions. On the other hand, I feel that if you're taking a big risk like that, you should stick the landing better on the easy stuff.

By easy stuff, I mean nonsense like the pointless B-story on the casino planet that adds nothing to the story and feels very much like someone last minute remembered they had to give some characters something to do. I mean not building your entire film around a passive, super-slow spaceship chase if your other main storyline is an equally passive back and forth between an unwilling mentor and a stubborn mentee, leaving the film cutting back and forth almost entirely without building momentum. I mean making a film entertaining and successful enough, that your ambitious themes and innovations won't all be completely retconned and ignored in the next installment.

I see what Johnson tried to do, and while I understand it might thrill some fans and gall others, to me the direction is less important than the quality of the storytelling getting there. Still, Leia gets to be awesome, and compared to "Rise of Skywalker", it is (as frankly are most films) an absolute masterpiece. And I do appreciate it trying. With a bit more script polishing and perhaps some harsher editing, "Last Jedi" could have been rather good. With a great continuation building upon it, it could also have been retroactively made something quite special. With the giant Disney machinery behind it, it's kind of unforgivable, though, that it got neither. ( )

La malvada Primera Orden se ha vuelto más poderosa y tiene contra las cuerdas a la Resistencia, liderada por la General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher). El piloto Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) encabeza una misión para intentar destruir un acorazado de la Primera Orden. Mientras tanto, la joven Rey (Daisy Ridley) tendrá que definir su futuro y su vocación, y el viejo jedi Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) revaluar el significado de su vida. (FILMAFFINITY).

La malvada Primera Orden se ha vuelto más poderosa y tiene contra las cuerdas a la Resistencia, liderada por la General Leia Organa. El piloto Poe Dameron encabeza una misión para intentar destruir un acorazado de la Primera Orden. Mientras tanto, la joven Rey tendrá que definir su futuro y su vocación, y el viejo jedi Luke Skywalker revaluar el significado de su vida.

It's a movie setting up the next one. Rey has found Luke and wants him to teach her; Finn is trying to find a place in the world and Poe is being a hothead. Meanwhile Kylo is having problems with his choices. It's a complicated explosive film with interesting moments and made me jump and gasp more than a few times. A powerful last movie for Carrie Fisher. ( )