"LAST JEDI" FIRST-RATE

          The eighth film in the franchise is one of the best.
          Remaining intentionally vague to preserve the experience, suffice to say that the First Order, spearheaded by Supreme Leader Snoke's Darth Vader-worshipping disciple, Kylo Ren (Driver), is on the verge--yet again--of crushing the Resistance. Meanwhile, Rey (Ridley), having finally found Luke Skywalker (Hamill) at the end of Episode 7, The Force Awakens (2015), must now try to persuade the legendary Jedi master to return, thereby giving the Resistance hope.
          This much any fan of the franchise can gather from the prevalence of posters.
          In the aforementioned Episode 7, which famously reunited original core cast members, we saw the return of Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia. Sadly, however, she died one year ago. Audiences may well then wonder whether the filmmakers will choose to use a computer-generated version of Fisher in the way that they did with Peter Cushing. Thankfully, they do not. Fisher finished scenes for the movie before her passing. The mistake of using a deceased actor's stiff and waxy CG likeness is not repeated in this film.
          The two latest Episodes do share in common three new characters simply not as interesting as the ones from the original films. Rey, Poe (Isaac), and Finn (Boyego) still fall fairly flat. But at least they aren't Ewoks, and at least there's no Jar Jar Binks.
          Writer-director Rian Johnson terrifically presents the proper atmosphere in keeping with the 1977 original. So far, this makes Johnson the fifth director to do so. Irvin Kershner did it for The Empire Strikes Back (1980), as did Richard Marquand with Return of the Jedi (1983); J.J. Abrams did it with The Force Awakens, and even so did Gareth Edwards in last year's franchise extension film Rogue One. Only George Lucas has proven himself unable to re-capture the proper atmosphere. And that happened three times.
          But this one's quite good.
          It's not science fiction. It's space opera--put forth by the Empire, so to speak, solely for the purpose of making money. Irony, therefore, can at some level be found. But in some weird way, the mighty Star Wars franchise, in all its varied forms, is also the national film. The anti-human forces, the forces of mechanization and globalization, which deny nature, and deny the individual, come spectacularly into conflict with the forces of life, and love, and what it means to be human. This is why it affects us. This is what makes it great.
          Well worth a trip to the theater.




STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI
Starring Mark Hamill,
Carrie Fisher,
Adam Driver,
Daisy Ridley,
John Boyego,
Oscar Isaac,
Kelly Marie Tran,
Laura Dern,
Andy Serkis,
Benicio Del Toro,
Frank Oz
Written and directed by Rian Johnson
Runtime 152 minutes
Rated PG-13




Stewart Kirby writes for

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