'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' - One With the Force

Rey (Daisy Ridley) hones her skills with The Force
on the remote planet Ahch-To in The Last Jedi

When I went to work on Thursday morning, it wasn't my plan to go online and reserve a prime seat for a 1:30am IMAX showing of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but that's what I did.

The magic of this revered sci-fi film franchise has been with me since I saw the original Star Wars eleven times in the theater when it came out in 1977.

Frankly I just couldn't wait to see what Luke Skywalker had been up to in the years since 1983's Return of the Jedi.

My last glimpse of Luke was just that, a momentary glimpse at the end of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the first film in the third sequel trilogy which came out back on December 19, 2015 - thanks to my sister I was fortunate enough to see a sneak preview of that film two days before on December 17th at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Harvey Theater.

The Last Jedi is the second film of the third trilogy and the eighth film in the Star Wars franchise, and from my perspective writer / directer Rian Johnson successfully captures that same sense of magic, wonder and excitement that define the best films of the franchise.

Now before I get into this, let me just reiterate that I don't believe in giving spoilers (unless we're discussing film one-on-one or in person and you ask me to give you the spoiler) so I'm not going to give away any plot twists or surprises that you won't see in any of the dozens of TV commercials for the film you'll be seeing over the next few days.

Overall it's one hell of a good film, one you won't want to miss on the big screen if you're a sci-fi or Star Wars fan - suffice to say if you are a fan of the first trilogy you really do need to see it.

I tossed back a double espresso at about 11:45pm Thursday night, put on my coat and hat and went out in 19 degree weather to go see it at 1:30am and to me it was well worth it.

Resistance fighters attack Imperial ships in the opening
(really cool) battle sequence of The Last Jedi

Like I said, I was at work on Thursday  checking theater times online and all the "good" showtimes (7pm - 11pm) were totally sold out for IMAX 2-D screenings through the weekend.

I knew it was going to be cold and snowy on Friday on my day off, plus all the Friday matinees were sold out, and I have to work on Saturday morning, but when I checked the 1:30am show there were tons of good seats so I just grabbed a ticket.

And I'm glad I did.

Like most Star Wars films, The Last Jedi kicks things off with an edge-of-your-seat, ass-kicking outer space battle sequence that sets the stage for the storyline and leaves your heart pounding.

Movie special effects simply don't get any better than this, and for sci-fi geeks like myself, there are some really cool new spaceships that are introduced for both the Resistance and the Empire.

Without giving anything away, the central plot basically centers on efforts by the Resistance ships, led by General Leia Organa (played by Carrie Fisher) and the reckless-but-brave fighter pilot Po Dameron (played by Oscar Issac) to flee a superior Imperial fleet that's bent on their destruction.

Meanwhile, the plot picks up across the galaxy on the remote planet Ahch-To where 2015's The Force Awakens left off - with new character Rey (played by Daisy Ridley) trying to convince Luke Skywalker (played by Mark Hamill) to emerge from his years of self-imposed isolation on the mysterious island where we last saw him.

The whole "Whatever happened to Luke?" angle is really what motivated me to go out and see this film, and I felt like I was rewarded with a pretty interesting subplot dealing with Luke's life since his triumph years ago in Return of the Jedi when he turned his father Darth Vader back from The Dark Side of the Force, compelling Vader to kill The Emperor (a Sith Lord) - and of course helped the Rebel Alliance destroy the 2nd Death Star in a spectacular 3rd act ending.

Luke (Mark Hamill) with the original sacred Jedi
texts inside the sacred "Jedi Tree"

Mark Hamill delivers a really nuanced performance as we meet an older, wiser and somewhat more cynical and subdued Luke than the anxious youngster learning to control his powers in the first Star Wars films.

He's a Jedi Master in his own right now and as the story reveals, that power has taken a toll on him personally.

The story also probes Luke's strange relationship with his nephew, the powerful apprentice of The Dark Side of the Force, Kylo Ren (Adam Driver).


Kylo Ren famously gave new meaning to the words Oedipus complex by ruthlessly killing his father Han Solo in The Force Awakens two years ago.

Once again Kylo Ren is a big part of the plot of this latest film, and the growing conflict between him and Rey (that ended with her kicking his ass in an intense light saber duel at the end of the last film) takes what can only be described as an unusual twist.

The other subplot revolves around the former stormtrooper-turned Resistance fighter Finn (played by John Boyega) traveling to a strange planet called Canto Bight with a young Resistance maintenance worker named Rose Tico (played by Kelly Marie Tran) that he befriends on the Resistance ship at the beginning of the movie.

It's nice to see an Asian actress with a realistic body type on the big screen who's not the standard Hollywood rail-thin, cookie-cutter blue-eyed blonde - (no offense to you if you're a rail-thin blue-eyed blonde but pretty much about 90% of female character roles for film and TV go to actresses who look like you. Share!)

Finn and Tico's secret mission to aid the Resistance features one of the more colorful scenes in the film and introduces some intriguing new characters.

The sinister Supreme Leader Snoke, played by actor
Andy Serkis, embodies the Dark Side of the Force

My only qualm with the film is that I felt there could've been more R2-D2, he and Chewbaca accompany Rey to Ahch-To on her search for Luke - R2 has some good scenes, but I felt like he and C3PO could've been more involved in the plot.

And let's just say that Chewie's piloting skills are in really fine form - that Wookie can fly.

Now The Last Jedi has received pretty solid critical reviews overall.

It scored an impressive 93% on Rotten Tomatoes.

But inevitably, there are those whose first instinct will be to remove individual parts of the movie, like a transmission or a carburetor, micro-analyze those parts, and take them apart piece by piece to find flaws to endlessly gripe about the film's weak points.

But the bottom line is that the fully-assembled film works, and it works well. Is it a perfect film? No.

But it's got an excellent cast, it's well directed, the story is solid and the special effects are off the hook - the settings, including scenes filmed in Ireland and Croatia are breathtaking.

Director / writer Rian Johnson definitely captures the fun, over-the-top swashbuckling spirit of the Star Wars franchise, but he also deftly balances the emotional intensity that's so important to the ongoing theme of The Force - and the guy can direct action.

Johnson isn't exactly a household name, he's a USC film school grad who directed the 2012 film Looper, as well as three episodes of AMC's Breaking Bad - but with The Last Jedi he's taken a giant leap onto Hollywood's director A-list.

This is a fun film, old characters mix well with new, the plot contains some unexpected surprises and perhaps best of all for Star Wars fans, it continues the tradition of the films that came before it while setting the stage for this unique fictional universe to continue.

I for one look forward to December 2019 when the next installment is scheduled to premiere; hopefully I'll remember to buy my ticket far enough in advance so that I don't have to go at 1:30am.

But I will if I have to.