As someone who is an avid Star Wars fan, I went into the new movie expecting many things; myself and a large amount of the online community had high hopes for this movie. However, I came out of the cinema confused and asking myself many questions about the plot and character arc of the film. I have a ton of problems with this film. One of them being the unneeded political messages, which was hilariously ironic in Disney movie. Another major problem in this movie was the introduction of characters and creatures to just sell toys, one example off the top of my head is the Porgs, who provided no substance and contributed nothing to the plot, aside from the occasional cheap gag. Another huge gripe I have with this movie is the attempted humor, a great deal of the jokes in The Last Jedi (Johnson) either fell flat or didn’t land.

There were a multitude of unnecessary political messages in The Last Jedi. One example of such is part of the subplot, where Finn, a returning character (played by John Boyega), and Rose Tico (played by Kelly Marie Tran), have to go to a casino and obtain a code breaker for the Resistance. The scene on the casino planet, Canto Bright, is an obvious nod towards the original trilogies’ drinking establishment, Mos Eisley Cantina, and was supposed to invoke nostalgia in the older crowd watching this film. During their escapades on Canto Bright, Rose makes a comment to the effect of how terrible it is that people can profit from war. Not only was this unneeded, this criticization of capitalism in a Disney movie is completely ironic. The Walt Disney Co., a corporation worth $109.58 billion that owns a severe majority of the entertainment that we consume was criticizing capitalism is tremendously ironic. The elephant in the room for this film is it’s prominent feature of the new character Admiral Holdo (played by Laura Dern), everyone’s favorite purple haired “replacement” for the beloved Admiral Ackbar. Just to be clear, I have absolutely no problem with a prominent female lead, I have a problem when people are shoehorned into a part just for the sake of having a “strong female lead.” I actually enjoyed Uma Thurman in Kill Bill, and Charlize Theron’s character in the recent Mad Max movie. However, in those movies the female lead actually made sense to have, unlike in The Last Jedi, where it felt unnatural and artificial (Tarantino, Miller).

My second major grievance with this movie is it’s attempt at humor. The film opens with a joke, about how the x-wing pilot, Poe Dameron (played by Oscar Isaac) can’t hear the First Order General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson) that he’s talking to on his space phone. Not only did this joke go on for way too long to the point where it felt like the writers were flogging a dead horse, but also because this joke can only work in a 2017/2018 environment. The beauty of the Star Wars franchise is that it’s completely timeless. The few jokes that are in the original trilogy can work in the 1970’s and in the 2010’s. The Star Wars Universe is set in a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, not in 2017.

One last thing that really bothered me, and bothered many other people, is the introductions of the Porgs to the series. If you haven’t seen the movie, porgs are these small bird-like creatures that slightly resemble puffins. They serve no purpose in the film and are just around for a cheap slapstick gag every ten minutes. The thing that really irks me about the porgs, though, is that they were just stuck in the movie to sell merchandise with the porgs on them.

In conclusion, the few good things about the film were its visuals, which were amazing. However, that doesn’t excuse the lazy writing that was put into this movie. The film was ultimately directionless, resulting in the unnecessary death of not one, but two beloved characters that have been with the series since the first movie back in ‘77. The movie dragged on for too long, and made it feel very drawn out and slow. I love the Star Wars saga. I love the characters, the worlds, the stories that were told, but it’s hard to love The Last Jedi.

Works Cited
Johnson, Rian. Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Los Angeles: Lucasfilm, 2017. DVD.
Miller, George. Mad Max: Fury Road. Australia: Village Roadshow Pictures, 2015. film.
Tarantino, Quentin. Kill Bill. Los Angeles: A Band Apart, 2003. film.
"Walt Disney Co.." DIS Annual Income Statement. N.p., 2018. Web. 26 Feb. 2018.