It’s finally here! Episode VIII of the Star Wars cinematic saga, The Last Jedi. If you haven’t yet seen this movie, you are in the right place. This review will not give away any critical details or plot points for The Last Jedi. Rather, this review should give you an idea of where to place your expectations going into the movie. If you have already seen the film, I can’t wait to discuss with you the spoiler details about this movie. There is certainly much to discuss. Feel free to message me and let me know your thoughts. PLEASE DO NOT comment with any spoilers for those who have not yet had the opportunity to see The Last Jedi.

Rewind to two years ago in December, there was an enormous amount of hype for the first installment in the newest trilogy of the Star Wars saga, Episode VII, The Force Awakens. Hopes were astronomically high for this movie to help heal the wounds dealt by the prequel trilogy, recapture the magic of the original trilogy, and convince a completely new generation that Star Wars is indeed something special. A daunting task that would inevitably not leave everyone happy. While many complain that J.J. Abrams (director of The Force Awakens) was guilty of rehashing too many similar themes from episode IV, A New Hope, it’s my humble opinion that he did a stellar job and did indeed recapture the magic of Star Wars with exciting new characters and familiar old ones.

While the hype for the long awaited installment that kicked off this latest Star Wars trilogy could not be matched by this film, there was still much anticipation for TLJ, especially concerning questions posed in TFA that we craved answers to. So much so that fan theories were flying left and right as to the true identity of Snoke and the parentage of our main protagonist, Rey. Fast forward two years…

I was fortunate enough to see this film opening night with my amazing wife who dressed like a storm trooper to match my Darth Vader attire. Nerd goals right?

So now that I’ve seen it and had a few days to digest it, take it all in, what can I say about this film? It was… different. Different in a good way? Absolutely! Different in a bad way. Without a doubt, yes. To be clear, I don’t mean different by way of a complete departure from the Star Wars universe that we know and love. It certainly feels like Star Wars. Everything from the AMAZING score with numerous call backs to the original trilogy to the cinematography made this movie feel like it definitely belongs in the Star Wars universe. However, there were elements that would make even some of the most amateur Star Wars fans scratch their heads and consider what Rian Johnson (director) was thinking. I’ll try to make a list of the pros and cons now that may be kind of vague to be sure I don’t get into spoiler territory.

Cons: Cause I’m a bad news first kind of guy.

1. Jokes – While there has been comedy injected to many of the Star Wars films, this one takes the cake for the most undeserved, unsettling, and unthematic attempt to solicit laughs. At times this seems because the joke seems to worldly (as in our present reality’s version of humor). For instance, think back to the previous installment, TFA, when Finn exclaims to BB-8. “Droid, please.” Other times the humor seems to be thoughtlessly thrown in amongst moments that were very serious or were pivotal points in the story. Just seemed irreverent at times. Not all of the jokes were off key, but the ones that were stuck out like a sore thumb.
2. Irrelevant Plot Points – If you’ve seen this movie already, you know exactly what I’m talking about. There are adventures that some of our characters go off on that don’t affect the main story arc at all. They seem to be time fillers that are intended to show character arcs but instead end up feeling superfluous. At a run time of 2 hours and 33 minutes, this movie could have easily benefited from adhering to a more traditional 2 hour run time.
3. New Characters – While I LOVED many of the new characters we were first introduced to in TFA (Rey, Kylo, Finn, Poe, even BB-8) there are more introduced in this movie that seemed completely unnecessary. Some because of the performances given. Others gave very convincing performances but didn’t seem to serve the story at all. Can’t say much more about that without getting into spoilers!
4. Retroactive Plot Holes – Part of the curse of using different directors on these movies is that some plot points and questions that were emphasized in one installment may not be as important to the agenda of the next director. J.J. Abrams, and now Rian Johnson, have both introduced elements to Star Wars that make the sweaty nerds quote Han Solo, “That’s not how the force works!” Especially in TLJ there are some moments of force utilization that we have witnessed on screen before that make us ask, “Why wasn’t the force utilized similarly in these other scenarios in past Star Wars films?” While it’s really cool to see some of these new effects of the force, it does seem irreverence for the original trilogy and how the force is depicted in those movies is to blame.
5. Ending – The very last scene is garbage.

Pros: Enough negatives, on to the good stuff!

1. Music/Sound Design – The aforementioned score is out of sight and a delight to enjoy in this film. John Williams can never die! There were so many callbacks to the original trilogy’s soundtracks that put a smile on my face every time I recognized one. At the same time, there’s new stuff that melds with the themes of original soundtracks beautifully. On top of that, the sound design for this movie was also quite astonishing. There were scenes that seemed liked all the air was sucked out of the room. So many scenes were served by such brilliant sound design. Once you see the movie I’m sure you’ll be able to pick out some of the scenes I’m referring to.
2. Characters/Acting – Getting to catch back up some of the characters from the original trilogy and the new ones from TFA was just awesome. Mark Hamill’s performance is out of sight and Carrie Fisher is amazingly good! The dynamic between Rey and Luke, between Rey and Kylo, and between Kylo and Luke are all extremely well done and enjoyable to watch. So much more I could go on raving about in this category but I can’t without spoiling the movie!
3. Cinematography – To the uninitiated, this is just a fancy word to talk about how a movie looks. This movie was gorgeous! Space battles in particular were just a nonstop thrill ride to watch. There were so many scenes that would make amazing posters or even better desktop wallpapers. There was one moment in particular that just left the entire audience breathless because not only of the weight of the moment story-wise but also just because of how that moment is depicted on the screen. Just incredible. Wisely, Rian Johnson did use practical effects were he could, following the example of J.J. Abrams who had learned rightly that a big problem with the prequels was the overuse of CGI. HOWEVER, there is an entire sequence that relies on CGI creatures in this movie that are distractedly unthematic and terrible looking. Aside from that sequence, the movie gets 5 stars from me in the area of cinematography.
4. Unpredictable – There were certainly themes from Empire Strikes Back as well as other Star Wars movies. Even so, the movie is truly originally and one of the most delighting aspects of this movie was that there were moments where I thought I knew exactly what was going to happen and I was very wrong. Some of those moments made me angry but many of them were pleasant surprises and ultimately more satisfying than what I thought was going to happen.
5. Ending –  Aside from the very last scene, the conclusion of this film actually seems genius to me. It doesn’t end on quite as much as a cliffhanger as TFA but it goes to a place that leaves me asking, “What is going to happen after all that?!” While it is definitely the 2nd movie in a trilogy it didn’t feel like a half or a third of a story. The ending seemed very fitting to the story told in The Last Jedi and I can’t wait to see Episode IX!

Hopefully that wasn’t too much to take in. I do hope you’ll now go into The Last Jedi with some tempered expectation. There were moments that felt like a straight up gut punch for hardcore Star Wars fans… but… I had an absolute blast seeing this movie and I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it when I see it again. It certainly has some problems I take issue with but is overall an exciting addition to the Star Wars saga.

Please comment below with your thoughts about The Last Jedi. Did you like it? Did you hate it? Whatever you do, don’t post any spoilers! Don’t be a nerf herder!

And for those of you who want to see The Last Jedi without having anything spoiled for you, you’ll probably want to go see it sooner rather than later!

Official SpeshAL Rating: Not Awful – 8 slices out of 10 from Pizza Planet