AndyDursin wrote:What an original title!

AndyDursin wrote:I'm curious if any of the characters will change clothes in this film?

AndyDursin wrote: Lucas was smart in the original trilogy to give them all new outfits in Empire and Jedi -- and in the case of the former, multiple costumes based on the planet they were on! Helped sell action figures, you know.

AndyDursin wrote:BTW watching it a second time -- it is an incredibly bland trailer, no reveals at all.

As it turns out, although “The Last Jedi” meets a relatively high standard for franchise filmmaking, Johnson’s effort is ultimately a disappointment. If anything, it demonstrates just how effective supervising producer Kathleen Kennedy and the forces that oversee this now Disney-owned property are at molding their individual directors’ visions into supporting a unified corporate aesthetic — a process that chewed up and spat out helmers such as Colin Trevorrow, Gareth Edwards, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. But Johnson was either strong enough or weak enough to adapt to such pressures, and the result is the longest and least essential chapter in the series.

That doesn’t mean it’s not entertaining. Rather, despite the success of “The Last Jedi” at supplying jaw-dropping visuals and a hall-of-fame-worthy lightsaber battle, audiences could presumably skip this film and show up for Episode IX without experiencing the slightest confusion as to what happened in the interim. It’s as if Johnson’s assignment was to extend the franchise without changing anything fundamental, which is closer to the way classic television and vintage James Bond movies operate than anything George Lucas ever served up.

Say what you will about Lucas’ clunky, uneven prequels, but they covered a ton of story ground. By contrast, “The Last Jedi” opens and closes with scenes of Resistance bases under siege, in between which the movie’s central concern is the dwindling fuel level on a carrier ship under slow-motion pursuit by Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis, who for the first time in his career probably would have been just as effective playing the character without the benefit of motion capture). Even more than last summer’s “Dunkirk,” this movie is about the honor and sacrifice of a successful retreat, which isn’t nearly as dramatic as an underdog offensive.

...Revealed as a bearded and cloaked recluse at the end of “The Force Awakens,” Luke is funnier than we’ve ever seen him — a personality change that betrays how “Star Wars” has been influenced by industry trends. Though the series has always been self-aware enough to crack jokes, it now gives in to the same winking self-parody that is poisoning other franchises of late, from the Marvel movies to “Pirates of the Caribbean.” But it begs the question: If movies can’t take themselves seriously, why should audiences? Harrison Ford was a good enough actor, and Han Solo an aloof enough character, that he could get away with it, but here, the laughs feel forced.

...“The Last Jedi” possesses the same reverence for the galaxy Lucas created, paying homage in all the right places (from the chills we get from John Williams’ iconic fanfare to the new-and-improved walkers that appear during the climactic siege) while barely advancing the narrative. Ultimately, there’s only so much wiggle room Johnson has to play with a property that seems destined to generate a new installment/spinoff every year until we die — which means that however many Death Stars or Sith Lords the Resistance manages to defeat, there will always be more, and no matter how few Jedi remain, there can never be none.