75

Disclaimer: It’s important to read to the end of this review.

A colossal disappointment. The type of entry in a franchise that by all accounts shouldn’t exist. There were so many interesting ideas that were set up in the previous film that were retconned for this film, which I think isn’t forgivable. It tells me nothing if not that the director of the film, who has already made something of a name for himself in the action movie business, does not care about Star Wars as a franchise and only sees it as a way to make money. And it did make money, but clearly only thanks to all of the momentum the Star Wars saga already had. In that way, I suppose this film is a triumph. Definitely not in any other department though. The previous entry’s cinematography was interesting and downright beautiful, but this has way too many lens flares and its all around too just plain ugly for me to get anything out of. The death scenes which I don’t want to spoil aren’t handled well at all, as though the men behind it just wanted to kill off these classic characters as a big fuck you to the audience. The children they have grown up with this series. It subverted my expectations in all the wrong ways, some of which I’ve already described here, and thus I’ll cut it short. Look, people disagree on almost everything. People don’t agree on water being wet, or the shape of the Earth, or who the next President of the United States should be. But if nothing else, we can all agree that Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker was a terribly disappointing ending, and Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi, though not perfectly directed, deserved all the positive reviews it received and is one of the best films in the entire saga.