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* SPOILERS AHEAD
** I am a fan of Star Wars, but I consider myself a casual fan who doesn’t know all the intricacies and backstories to the universe. Therefor, things that may have bothered some people, might have gone unnoticed by me.

I spent the last several days making sure that I didn’t read anything about the newest addition to the Star Wars Franchise. All I really knew going in was that the critics seemed to love it, but the fans were giving it a much lower score. I was going in with an open mind, and I have to say, I enjoyed it. More so than than “The Force Awakens”. It branches off in some new directions, fleshes out some of the characters, and doesn’t abandon the concepts of the original.

The newest Star Wars film has several storylines. There are three main ones though. One is the the story Rey the young hungry force sensitive pupil and the unwilling Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. The second is The Resistance’s battle to survive being snuffed out by the high powered New Order who now has the ability to track ships through hyperspace (See connection to Rogue One here). And finally, Kylo Ren’s journey.

First off, let me admit to a few things bugging me with this film. It was overly long and sometimes a little heavy handed with the lessons and dialog. A prime example of this is the sidestory line where Finn and the new character Rose make a pretty pointless trip to a casino planet where the rich are served by the poor. The rich are weapons dealers who are profiting off both sides of the war. The unneeded morality lesson added an extra 20 or so minutes to an already long movie, didn’t end up really moving things forward, and apparently now Rose loves Finn. Benicio Del Toro’s character was a fun addition but was ultimately a nod to Lando Calrissian who also didn’t move the plot forward(maybe we’ll see him again). This all leads me to biggest problem with the last two episodes… Finn. He just doesn’t do it for me. His character isn’t interesting or that likeable and I’m not feeling the connection that he and Rey are supposed to have. Sometimes it feels like his purpose is just to show that men don’t have to be the hero. It’s a shame too, because the backstory of someone being raised since birth to destroy The Resistance, then defecting and falling for their new central character had great potential.

*Also that thing with General Leia in space was just weird and seemed out of place. If she was that strong with the Force, why has she been wasting it the whole time.

All that being said, Episode 8 was a good time. Kylo became interesting again and made me forget that I LOL’d the first time he took off his mask, and Snoke was a good puppetmaster who played on his emotions. His CGI was pretty well done too. Kylo and Rey’s relationship was probably the strongest of the movie. They were both trying to find their place and they made you believe she might actually take his hand and start something new. But once she rejected that, he was all in on being a baddie and letting his emotions take over.

I know a lot of people don’t like what they did Luke but in my opinion it was an interesting direction. The hero loses faith, a young optimistic person turns him around and he makes the ultimate sacrifice. I guess there is some speculation out there on weather he dies, but the way it went down, I am guessing he is now one with the Force like Obi-Wan.

In the end I guess I don’t see what all the negative fan fuss is about.

Reviewed by: Phillip Lane on December 22, 2017