I never thought the words would ever come out of my mouth, or be typed by my own hands, but yes after watching Star Wars: The Last Jedi, I believe that Star Wars needs to be done with in regards to feature films at least, and possibly everything needs to stop. As you can tell I am one of the very few that didn't care for the new Star Wars film whatsoever. There will be spoilers, so if you haven't watched the film yet perhaps it would be wise to do so first, but it is up to you. So apparently the 8th film takes place immediately right after the 7th film if I am understanding the chronology correctly, if not then it is all very confusing. So essentially the entire film is one long chase where the First Order is trying to destroy the Resistance in their powerful mega battleships as the faster Resistance ships try to outrun them; it becomes a battle of attrition eventually. Meanwhile, Rey and Luke....well...I wouldn't call it training, but they're together and Luke isn't the bright eyed, idealistic man he was in Return of the Jedi and he refuses to train Rey, or have anything really to do with her. So there is a lot of back and forth between them about what should or shouldn't be done. And aside from deviations from those two plots, that is essentially the film. So we obviously have Daisy Ridley as Rey, and I suppose she grew as a character. She had perhaps the most interesting character, aside from Luke Skywalker, and therefore it was interesting to see the two of them have scenes together. Although it's hard to say how much she grew by the end of the film. Luke Skywalker played by Mark Hamill was well done on his part, although like him I did not agree with the direction the character went; much too dark, and too bitter. It is definitely never something George Lucas would have done. Carrie Fisher as General Leia Organa was okay, but nothing really astounding, and I thought they were actually going to kill her off; I was quite surprised when they didn't. Adam Driver as Kylo Ren was a little more conflicted this time around, but he was definitely better in the previous film; he came across as more backdrop than anything until a few key moments. It would have been great to see him grow, but the crowded screen of characters made that very difficult to do. John Boyega as Finn had much smaller role in this film than previously, therefore he didn't really grow much at all as a character, which is a real shame. I was actually hoping he was going to die because his character got really annoying in this film. Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron saw his role grow substantially quite larger in this film, which was okay but he came off as rather obnoxious throughout the film. His arrogant stupidity seemed like it belonged more in Top Gun than in Star Wars. Andy Serkis finally got his opportunity to shine as Supreme Leader Snoke and he did fantastic.....until he died rather anti-climatically, leaving disappointment and lots of questions behind. More on that later. Lupita Nyongo had a very brief appearance as Maz Kanata for some odd reason. General Hux played by Domhnall Gleeson came off more stupid and pathetic in this film than he had been in the previous film for some odd reason. Gwendoline Christie as Captain Phasma had a very brief and pointless appearance in this film and then of course died. For new characters there was Rose Tico played by Kelly Marie Tran, who is a Resistance engineer of sorts who gets involved in one of the side plots of the film. She is a preachy, obnoxious character that has complete irrelevance to the entire story; I am at a complete loss why the filmmakers thought her character was needed unless Disney was pushing to have more central female characters in the film. Laura Dern played Vice Admiral Holdo, and did so brilliantly and I really wish she would have lived to fight another day, but alas she also died. Benicio Del Toro had a small role as a slicer DJ, and he had the potential to be a really cool character, but I don't think they put his incredible talent to much use unfortunately. Honestly a great cast, but their characters weren't written that well.
Okay, Rian Johnson I thought would be an improvement over J.J. Abrams, but I was more than incredibly wrong. The Last Jedi came across more like a Star Trek film than a Star Wars film, and yes there are monumental differences between the 2 film franchises. Star Wars isn't preachy, Star Trek is; Star Trek has bad action sequences that aren't dynamic or new and refreshing, Star Wars has some of the best, dynamic action sequences in cinematic history; Star Trek focuses on social issues, Star Wars focuses on the story and characters; Star Trek sticks with the cinematic status quo, Star Wars always pushes what is cinematically possible; Star Trek films are each different from each other, Star Wars films are all connected thematically to each other by motifs and themes that consistently appear in each film; lastly, Star Trek doesn't have consistent cinematic music, Star Wars has the finest music scores of any film and will outlast the franchise's popularity. The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi have come across to me more as Star Trek films than Star Wars because those motifs that are present in all 6 Star Wars films are not in the 7th and especially the 8th film. Honestly, George Lucas made Star Wars and without him or his guidance/influence nothing can be. Both Abrams and Johnson have done everything they can to eliminate Lucas' presence from the new films. They did this by switching to practical effects, puppets, animatronics, and realistic characters and places (just like Star Trek). While George was always pushing the envelope, the two directors pushed it back with a vengeance. In The Last Jedi the ship design was crap; nothing really new and original that actually looked good. I love John Williams and he is the best film composer in the world, but this score was quite boring and nowhere anywhere near as good as the previous 6 films or even film 7. World design was crap; an island, space, a desert mineral world, and a world that looked like it came from the Caribbean. Costume design was okay, but the only thing that looked fantastic was Carrie Fisher's outfit and Snoke's Praetorian Guard. Once again there was no climatic or amazing lightsaber battle, which was incredibly disappointing considering Luke was in this film as a major Jedi Master. There was also throughout the film a severe lack of seriousness to the characters with what was going on; it almost came off as a ridiculous joke. Also another once again; the writers killed off the wrong character in Luke, as Carrie Fisher died in real life; so now none of these actors or characters will ever be able to ever interact with each other ever again. Nice job Disney, Abrams and Johnson. As for Snoke dying in such a ridiculous manner, what a let down; he went from being an all-powerful villain that was mysterious and shrouded in secrecy, to cut in half by sheer luck halfway through the second act. And Luke Skywalker also died in a very anti-climactic nonsensical manner.
As you can tell there was pretty much nothing about this film I enjoyed, and the Yoda puppet was the cherry on top. The ending of the film was also very, very odd; I don't know why they chose to end it on an unknown character, but it was so ridiculous and not like Star Wars at all. My perspective is of the vein that Star Wars Episodes 1-6 form a seamless saga bound together by music, a common visual and cinematic vision, a singular story, various motifs that consistently appear to connect each film to each other, and the imagination and creative restraint and guidance of George Lucas. Without these elements present nothing can truly be Star Wars. Although I incredibly dislike The Last Jedi it was not necessarily a bad film, for me it just isn't Star Wars for the above mentioned reasons. What will happen is that Disney and it's directors they choose to helm each film will try to remain in the past with the Star Wars films from the 1980's rather than pushing the envelope ahead in the area of technology, design and storytelling. It will be this inability to change, adapt and grow that overtime will dull the franchise and eventually lead to its inevitable destruction. That may sound rather apocalyptic and over the top, and I will admit that it is very pessimistic, but consider that Star Wars, i.e. George Lucas, changed Hollywood forever and how movies were made, what have Rian Johnson, J.J. Abrams and Disney done with newest films? All they're interested in doing is making lots and lots of money, re-making Star Wars in their own image rather than sticking with what worked successfully with the other 6 films, and they will bleed the franchise dry of every drop they can get out of it. Yes, it is time for Star Wars to end.The Last Jedi behind the scenes
The Last Jedi interviews
The Last Jedi trailer
