"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" Review

Spoiler-Free Review

I can count on one hand all the times I've walked out of a theater and thought Wow. There is almost nothing I would change about that movie.

The Last Jedi was very nearly perfect. I do not use that word lightly, especially in regards to movies. This thing gets 9.5 out of 10 stars. At least two of the stars are just for Luke Skywalker's sass. The man is cranky in his old age; it's beautiful.

One of the few things I would change is Snoke's very poor choice of clothing. Andy Serkis's performance and the drama of his scenes were enough for me to forgive the golden disco-dress his character wears, but still. That pulled me out of the movie for a moment.

But the biggest--most would say only problem--with this movie is the lack of LGBTQ representation. We heard rumors in the months between The Force Awakens and now that there would be a gay character in this film. Given Disney's abysmal track record with this community and the lack of LGBTQ representation in media as a whole, we all had our hopes up. Maybe the bromance between Finn and Poe would drop the B. Maybe a whole new character would be introduced and they'd be in a steady same-sex relationship.

Well, we do get a new character. But while Rose is amazing and adds gender and racial diversity to the film, we get nothing in terms of queer representation.

​I'll stop the tangent now. This is an incredible movie that deserves waterfalls of praise, and more importantly, we have another episode after this one. With any luck, I'll be able to say, "Wow, Episode Nine has an awesome LGBTQ character in it" in a couple of years.

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Rose

Rose Tico deserves her own section here. She's very similar to Rey, yet different enough to be her own person, and I think I like her more than the young Jedi.

​While they're both good with ships and engineering, Rose (being a mechanic) is better at it. They're both passionate, com passionate, and eager to jump into the fight with both feet, but Rose takes a bigger risk because she's not a soldier and doesn't have Rey's powers. And while they both deeply care about Finn, it seems one of them is getting the romantic relationship while the other is getting a brother/sister relationship.

That, or Disney is setting us up for a love triangle. Which would almost be enough for me to boycott this whole series, because no .

While Disney has so far failed with LGBTQ representation, I'm very glad they cast someone like Kelly Marie Tran to play the part. It's not every day you see a black man and Asian woman--who many directors would turn away simply because she has a thicker waistline--get as much screen time as the two main (white) characters. And more importantly, Tran rocks the role.

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I could go on and on about how great this movie is: the fight between Finn and his former captain, Rey meeting Snoke, Luke's showdown with Kylo Ren, it was all incredible. And that's without getting into the gorgeous cinematography, the throwbacks to the original, the surprising and skillfully implemented complex themes running through this movie...

Just go see it. If you call yourself any kind of sci-fi or movie fan, then you need to see this movie.

What did you think of Episode VIII ? Let me know in the comments!

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