REVIEW: Star Wars: The Last Jedi (live action movie)

[This isn't the best or most insightful review, but one of the things I'd like to do in 2018 is be better about writing something for everything, even if what I write isn't all that detailed. I saw several movies in 2017 that never got write ups because I never turned my brief notes into posts.]

I was nervous about going to see this in the theater because, wow, two and a half hours. But my vet told me that my cat was probably on the mend and that I should cut back on force feeding her and see what her food consumption was like, so 1) I wanted to celebrate a little and 2) I needed to get out of the house and stop obsessing about her eating and litter box usage. I even made an event of it and bought myself popcorn and a drink, which I never do.

I still haven't seen Rogue One, and the last time I saw The Force Awakens was when it came out in 2016. I was a little rusty on what had previously happened. For example, I can't for the life of me remember why Finn had all those water (?) things attached to him, although the "leaking" scene was hilarious.

I feel approximately the same about this movie as I did The Force Awakens. Although it made for a nice time at the movie theater and didn't feel nearly as long as I feared it would, I didn't love it the way a lot of Star Wars fans I know did. Again, I seem to like the fandom output more than the original stuff that inspired it.

On the plus side, this didn't feel quite as weighed down by nostalgia as the first movie. On the minus side, it's a very long movie considering how little really happens. The main thing that kept it from feeling so long, I think, was that I enjoyed the characters a bit more this time around. I was nervous about what was going to happen with Rey, I was charmed by Rose, everyone loves Finn, and I worried that Poe was going to manage to get himself kicked out of the Resistance for insubordination. Cranky Luke was kind of fun, and I liked Leia better without Han around (I'm sorry!).

I can't remember how The Force Awakens did in this department, but I definitely noticed that The Last Jedi made an effort to have a significant number of female extras and minor characters. Very nice. And since I love animals, whether they're fictional ones or not, I also enjoyed all the new creatures. My favorites, I think, were the crystal fox things and the Porgs (Ship Porg is best Porg).

I don't plan to buy it or anything, but I'm glad I saw it. Now I need to sit down and watch Rogue One sometime. The main reason I've put that one off is because the few things I read about it made it sound like death and sadness. (Technically The Last Jedi had death and sadness too, but it also had downright goofy bits, like the Porgs and BB-8 literally using its head to fix things, so it balanced out.)