Spoilers for Star Wars Episode VIII – The Last Jedi

Friday, December 15th marked the release of the latest installment in the Star Wars series, The Last Jedi. While it has high praise from critics, it has had a divisive response from audiences and fans. The previous two recent films, The Force Awakens and Rogue One, received good reviews from both critics and audiences; whereas, The Last Jedi currently possesses an audience score on Rotten Tomatoes lower than any of the prequels (54%), but a critic score as high as the originals (92%).

“I really liked the movie. I was completely drawn in the whole time,” shared Senior Emma Borgsmiller, who saw the film opening weekend. “It was significantly better than the prequels. Out of the rest I don’t really have a favorite, and it was just as enjoyable for me as those.”

Other Oakdale seniors, Sofia Sanchez-Manni and Sarah Pimentel, also agreed that that movie was enjoyable to watch, but thought the story was weak, and that it should have taken a different route.

Pilmental explained, “With The Last Jedi, you could tell it was a movie in the middle of a series. It really felt like an intermediate between the two other films. Nothing really important happened nor did anything from the previous film get resolved.”

“The subplot with Finn, Rose, Poe, and Holdo felt unnecessary and inconsequential. They took main characters from the last movie and created new characters for a side plot that did not really progress the story, and the conflict was created through a simple misunderstanding that seemed kind of forced,” Sanchez-Manni added.

Some highlights of the movie they all agreed on include its stunning visuals and interesting creature and planet design, like the salt planet Crait and the ‘foxes’ that live on it. Favorite scenes seemed to be the main action sequences of the film, especially Snoke’s death by Kylo Ren’s betrayal, and the fight that followed. “I thought it was funny that Snoke believed he was omniscient, but his arrogance was his downfall at the end,” Borgsmiller stated.

Other parts of the movie seemed forced out of nostalgia for the original trilogy, inconsistent in tone to try to add in more humor, out of place, or over dramatic. Mentioned in particular was the scene where Princess Leia used the force to fly back onto the ship after being blown out into space.

The Last Jedi was directed by Rian Johnson, a change from JJ Abrams, the director of The Force Awakens. While Star Wars: Episode IX will return to Abrams’ control , Johnson has been given his own Star Wars trilogy unrelated to any of the characters in the current films to write and direct after this trilogy wraps up.

“I’m super excited to see how this trilogy ends. I think that the director did a good job and I’m excited to see what he does in the next trilogy,” Borgsmiller shared.

Sanchez-Manni did not completely agree. “I do want to see the next movie, but I’m not very interested in the next trilogy. I don’t think Johnson is very good at characterization. He took established protagonists and made them seem heartless and two-dimensional. Maybe it will be better since he will be starting fresh with his own characters, but even characters he introduced in this movie seemed to flip flop between motives and morals.”

Although there are mixed opinions on whether The Last Jedi is the best or the worst thing to happen to Star Wars, everyone is interested in seeing how this story will end.