Movie- Star Wars VIII - the last Jedi

Movie – Star Wars VIII - the last Jedi 

Score : 8/10 

Year : 2017 

Director: Rian Johnson

Cinematography: Steve Yedlin
Music : John Williams

Country: USA

Language: English (and invented) 

Duration: 2h32 

Writers: Rian Johnson ; George Lucas (based on characters created by)

After weeks of having to block Star Wars related material online, to avoid spoilers and to remain only on our theories since the end of chapter VII (the force awakens).

Thus, for our wedding anniversary, the first weekend after local opening, we offered the 3D session to ourselves. It's lucky that one of the cinemas had the VO - the original English, and not dubbed, on the very day we needed. 

The last Jedi was, simply said, pure awesomeness of action, humour, imagery, and the most political Star Wars thus far. 

Disney are surely doing all kinds of efforts, from offering more dialogues and screen time to the additional female characters ; to offer more ethnic diversity ; being more political, and also respecting the franchise thus far, with many nods to previous chapters, but also offer new material as this isn't a prequel, but a sequel. 

The movie starts almost about the same moment chapter VII had stopped, more or less... Although a few plots were predictable since VII, they were made in more original ways to get there ; and there were some surprises too. 

The narrative innovates within the saga, respecting it but also bringing new perspectives, answering some but not all of the mysteries and questions raised through the previous chapters. 

The pace is a bit uneven, but I found the slower moments refreshing and giving food for thought. I hope that some of the newer elements shall be continued and further explored in chapter IX.  
 
The writing for three specific scenes reduce the overall appreciation for this movie, with unrealistically long lapse of reflection to action, which the edit only worsens as they cut back and forth with other locations, making it feel even longer to get the previously started segment progress.

Although most of the villains are well written and acted, one or several haven't been as well executed, further reducing my overall score as a movie with heroines and heroes with uneven antagonists is quite detrimental.  

The 3D, cinematography and visual effects were fantastic ; the depth of view was amazing, with ships coming straight into the cinema's room!  

Relative positions of people, objects, landscapes were all very well proportioned and rendered - you could feel like it was filling your surrounding.  

Landscapes were rather varied, visiting new corners of the (fictional) galaxy.

There are off course a couple usual tropes, but the humour and overall acting are top notch. 

Characterisation is really well done, taking different turns that I'd imagined, and I really liked how the 'new' ones from VII and the newer from VIII were portrayed. Evolution and growth aren't forgotten, and there are so many extra female characters, that they don't feel like a lost tribe anymore - even if we're not yet at 50%, I thank Disney for the efforts towards equalizing, and for not having overtly sexualized anyone.

As Carrie Fisher died last year, during production of the film, seing Leia has an emotional level that wasn't there before, with a bit of a sad pang.  

Dialogues were often funny, witty, and offered political statements ; as well as philosophical subjects, always present in the franchise.  

The last Jedi touches existential subjects, and as I said, this is the most overtly political Star Wars movie, even with some aspects that I'll discuss in the slightly less spoiler-free section bellow - though I won't go into any details.

John Williams' score is immersive and I loved its atmospheric depth. His music is on queue with notes of humour, action, suspense - everything's there.

Casting :

Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Lupita Nyong'o, Domhnall Gleeson, Antony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie, Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern, Benicio del Toro, Joonas Suotamo, Billie Lourd, Timothy D. Rose, Mike Quinn, Mark Lewis Jones, Adrian Edmondson, Veronia Ngô, Justine Theroux, Joseph-Gordon-Levitt, Warwick Davis, Gareth Edwards, Gary Barlow, Hermione Corfield, Noah Segan.

The Princes William and Harry, and Tom Hardy all have cameos as storm-troopers.

Cinema experience : almost the best! we were first in line and chose a double seat, which was much more comfortable. Though volume was slightly loud, I didn't need to block my ears as the room was rather packed and wide. Had to fiddle with the 3D glasses to avoid double ghosting image, but that's probably due to my eyes themselves. (wearing on top of bifocal glasses).

The slightly less, but not really spoilery section :

There are the usual topics of abuse of power and exploitation, but, the newer aspect of animal rights and liberation.