Finally got around to watching Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
In some ways, it was an improvement on the previous film - a little more of the Lucas "paint in the corners" aesthetic was at play, and there were some great set pieces - yet it couldn't help feeling derivative; you could die of alcohol poisoning playing the "spot the classic SW trilogy callback/knock-off" drinking game. And some of it was totally unnecessary; why were C-3PO and R2 even in the thing, anyway - the former especially? Some of the logic felt stretched, particularly some of the characters' actions and decisions. Kylo Ren will never be as imposing or interesting a villain as Vader, no matter how they try to make him one... and was Snoke just reading a cheat sheet of Palpatine lines? (As for the physics and battles... well, it is Star Wars, perhaps the ultimate space fantasy, and it's all about the spectacle/merchandising of related toys, so you need as many cool gadgets as you can get. You don't ask why the First Order would land complicated and expensive walkers to ponderously approach a base instead of bombarding from orbit... or why a bomber in space, with no gravity, behaves exactly like a bomber on Earth, dropping explosives from bomb-bay doors and everything... though I admit to actually chuckling out loud a few times when even Star Wars physics/logic was stretched past the breaking point. Leia in space, anyone?) It also seemed overlong; at least three times I checked the Netflix time counter, thinking it surely had to be almost over, but nope. The FX would've impressed on the big screen, with some truly spectacular money shots, though a few scenes were too dark to see more than vague shapes. (What is up with that trend, anyway?) Still, it was somewhat entertaining, if still ultimately a shadow compared to the magic of the originals. I expect I'll watch the final film if/when it comes to Netflix.
