Caution: Minor spoilers ahead.
“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” was released in theaters Dec. 14 and continues the storyline that director J.J. Abrams began in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” Rey finally finds Luke on the planet Ahch-To with the hope that he will come with her to help the Resistance fight the First Order.
The movie starts with Rey giving Luke his lightsaber, Finn waking up from a coma and Poe Dameron fighting the First Order’s ships with his team of Resistance fighters. However, after the first few minutes of the film, the story strays far, far away from the usual “Star Wars” formula.
“When ‘The Last Jedi’ was advertised, they used a phrase from the film where Luke Skywalker says, ‘This is not going to go the way you think,’” sophomore Matthew Musslewhite said. “This is very true because of how the film is presented with multiple plot twists.”
“I enjoyed the film in a way I hadn’t enjoyed a previous ‘Star Wars’ film, because it was so different from really any kind of conventional ‘Star Wars’ film I have seen,” junior Parker Samuel said.
Junior Parker Samuel positively reacted to the new chapter in the saga.
“The Last Jedi” takes many twists and turns, the likes of which audiences have not seen in the franchise since “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back,” released in 1980. However, fans and critics have had very different opinions of the film. Rotten Tomatoes displays the critics’ score at a fresh 90 percent, while the audience score is currently a rotten 49 percent.
Junior Tyler Worsham commented that “The Last Jedi” felt like a remake of the old movies.
“It has the same name and all,” Worsham said. “But they are trying to take characters and remake the same story.”
Many fans criticized director Rian Johnson’s direction with the film, some are getting tired of the films repeating or copying from previous works in the franchise, while others have issues with some of the plot points in the movie.
“I think the fans were probably disappointed by stuff that just wouldn’t work in any movie, especially the pacing,” Samuel said. “I do think that some of the payoff in the movie is smart, but I also think that some of it is a little bit disappointing.”
“I did not care for the repetition,” Worsham said. “They have kind of done the same idea multiple times, and I don’t like that Disney has been trying to remake characters that were previously made by George Lucas.”
The movie has grossed over $591 million at the domestic box office as of Jan. 14, 2018. The movie is far from a failure, but it appears to be less popular than Disney and Lucasfilm had expected.
“I think that the fans that thought the movie was just OK are a lot less likely to rate the movie on a website like (Rotten Tomatoes),” Samuel said. “The loudest voices are always the most passionate. I think that there a lot more fans that thought the movie was OK than there are that thought it was terrible.”
