First Take: Star Wars: The Last Jedi- the real winner this Christmas

Spoiler free as usual. Because Star Wars, obviously.

SYNOPSIS: Having taken her first steps into the Jedi world, Rey joins Luke Skywalker on an adventure with Leia, Finn and Poe that unlocks mysteries of the Force and secrets of the past.

Having taken the first steps towards a new trilogy with 2015’s incredible nostalgia-fest that was The Force Awakens, LucasFilm are moving ahead quite rapidly with the traditional Episodes (as well as standalone films, don’t get me started on Solo), and with Rian Johnson at the helm, I had
incredibly high expectations for Episode VIII- and I might be one of the few people who believes that did he deliver on the nearly 2 year build of hype.

Johnson has crafted a film that takes the future of the franchise in a direction that I frankly wasn’t expecting- it may be the longest film in the traditional episodic saga (clocking in at just shy of 2 hours 31 minutes), but it did not feel that long at all, as he is able to bring his experience from films like Looper to a more mainstream audience. As a result, this isn’t your archetypical Star Wars film, something which is prevalent in Johnson’s script and the cinematography from frequent collaborator Steve Yedlin, as this is a lot more brutal than The Force Awakens. Continuing a deep root to the past, John Williams provides another incredible score to give the emotional punch that certain huge scenes require- and speaking of, there is a lot of fan service. Unfortunately to say what that entails would spoil the film, but there are some huge surprises.

Obviously, this cast are incredible from the word go. As an ensemble, the cast are brilliant, but the work of certain key members like Daisy Ridley, Mark Hamill, the late and great Carrie Fisher, and Adam Driver amongst others made the film just fly by, and as a result, it felt like a natural way to continue the story of 2015’s biggest film. Sure, there has been a lot of debate about the character development in the film, but based on tonight’s audience reaction, LucasFilm can be happy with the reception of their latest entry to the Skywalker saga. Now we just have to wait another 2 years for JJ Abrams to return and hopefully close off what’s shaping up to be a trilogy this generation can be proud of.

THE VERDICT

And with that, the Force is strong once again- with some outstanding work by the entire technical team and a solid cast, The Last Jedi is another supremely enjoyable big screen experience. See it big, see it loud, see it in a proper cinema- because this is easily one of the best made-for-cinema films
we’ve had for a very long time.

RATING: 5/5