The Last Jedi

"Star Wars" is, like it or not, our generation's mythology. It changed what blockbuster were supposed to be, for good and evil (noting that the film 20th Century Fox expected to be their box-office champ of 1977 was a Sydney Sheldon melodrama, perhaps it's for the better cinema didn't follow the Fox executives' predictions). And the extension of that mythology has had ... well, let's say, mixed results in the popular imagination. For some, the rot set in when the Ewoks showed up, for others it's the prequels, and for still another set, it's the new run of films that kicked off in 2015 with "The Force Awakens".

For me, it's still golden - I don't love the prequels but they have moments of awesome that make me happy (along with, yes, moments of bad dialogue or incompetent acting that make me glance elsewhere for a bit) - and the current crop keep the flame well and truly alive. "The Last Jedi" picks up the story pretty promptly after "The Force Awakens", with the Resistance well and truly on the run from the First Order, and Rey seeking enlightenment from Luke Skywalker. Neither go exactly as expected - the Resistance suffers blow after blow, while Luke is emphatically not at all interested in training a new generation. There's enough plot developments for what feels more like two sequels rather than one, and we end in a place where the possibilities seem endless as to what could happen next.

This is a beautiful action-adventure-sci-fi story that made my heart soar, pound, and even occasionally got my head to think. If the adventures of two characters occasionally look a little bit like busy-work to keep them occupied while other people are getting up to more important plot related things, they're never the less thematically important and serve to widen the world of the story. It's a film where the heroes choices get harder, where the dangers are more lethal, and where the difference between wrong and right isn't as clear as it has been. And it's beautifully shot too, with the action taking place in some gorgeous sets and environments.

I understand there's been some, ahem, mixed reactions out there to this. But I unashamedly loved it as a true expansion and a deeply thoughtful film rather than just another franchise retread. And I'm not ashamed to say so.