Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Are you a fan of the Star Wars movies?  You can bet I am and I was eager and excited to see this latest installment.  All the characters we loved from the last installment like Rey, Poe, Finn BB-8,  and Kylo Ren, are back as well as old favorites like Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca, R2D2, and C3PO.  What a cast! This movie also boasts a great script, spot on direction and wonderful and sweeping scenery.  In a nutshell:  The Last Jedi has everything I want to see in a Star Wars movie.  If you are like me, someone who loves and watches tons of movies, it is hard to come up with something new and inventive that actually surprises me.  “The Last Jedi” did it though, and how!  Once it gets going, the action is fast paced and shifts from story line to story line fluidly, keeping the viewer interested and looking forward to the next scene. Scenes between Luke (Mark Hamill) and Rey (Dasiy Ridely) evoke those between Luke and his teacher,Yoda.  Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and Rey continue to have some kind of a connection through the Force that we all know will  not end well for one of them, but adds exposition and a dimension to the Force that hitherto has been unexploited, in the movies at least .   Finn (John Boyega) and Poe (Oscar Issac) continue to shine in their supporting roles.  New comer Kelly Marie Tran as Rose Tico was surprisingly poignant as a maintenance worker who has a key role in helping the Resistance.  There are too many minor characters to name, but Benecio del Toro and Laura Dern are just two of the many standouts.  Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if you don’t end up wanting to own an “ice fox.”  Porgs aside, the ice foxes are absolutely cute and cool. Director and writer Rian Johnson has done a masterful job of respecting the episodes that came before and at the same injecting new life and humor into the eighth episode in a saga that happens in a galaxy far, far away!