“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” is coming to a theater near you and here’s a roundup of what the critics think.
There’s been a growing buzz about “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” – will it leave fans begging for more of the story or sadly disappointed? Well, the reviews are out and the critics are sharing their thoughts on the film just in time for you to buy your tickets… or not.
Bob Strauss, Los Angeles Daily News
“It’s not just a nostalgia-servicing exercise or gigantic toy ad (porgs notwithstanding, though even those comic cuddle objects are kept to a judicious minimum). Rather than go all simpleminded on the good vs. evil issue, “The Last Jedi” instead projects something like an understanding of actual human nature .”
Manohla Dargis, New York Times
“Yes, the latest ‘Star Wars’ installment is here, and, lo, it is a satisfying, at times transporting entertainment. Remarkably, it has visual wit and a human touch, no small achievement for a seemingly indestructible machine that revved up 40 years ago and shows no signs of sputtering out (ever).”
Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com
“It’s everything a fan could want from a ‘Star Wars’ film and then some. Even the sorts of viewers who spend the entire running time of movies anticipating every plot twist and crowing ‘called it!’ when they get one right are likely to come up short here.”
Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post
“‘The Last Jedi’ honors the franchise’s chief values of idealism, loyalty and self-sacrifice that made the original ‘Star Wars’ so beloved, with a similarly appealing ragtag team of hotheads and cockeyed optimists to root for as they try to save their galaxy from totalitarian domination.”
Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly
“‘The Last Jedi’ is a triumph with flaws. But through those flaws, it leaves us with a message as old as time. Our heroes don’t live forever. Death is inevitable. But their battle, if passed down to the right hands, will continue along with their memories. Both in front of and behind the camera, Star Wars has been passed to the right hands.”
Brian Truitt, USA Today
“‘The Last Jedi’ is (Adam) Driver’s to rule as much as Force Awakens was (Daisy) Ridley’s, and he’s awesome in it – Kylo is blockbuster cinema’ s most magnetic and unpredictable antagonist since Heath Ledger’s Dark Knight Joker. Just as good is the original Star Wars hero: (Mark) Hamill lends gravitas, warmth, power and even humility to old Luke in a memorable performance.”
Peter Debruge, Variety
“… Although ‘The Last Jedi’ meets a relatively high standard for franchise filmmaking, (Rian) Johnson’s effort is ultimately a disappointment. If anything, it demonstrates just how effective supervising producer Kathleen Kennedy and the forces that oversee this now Disney-owned property are at molding their individual directors’ visions into supporting a unified corporate aesthetic- a process that chewed up and spat out helmers such as Colin Trevorrow, Gareth Edwards, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. But Johnson was either strong enough or weak enough to adapt to such pressures, and the result is the longest and least essential chapter in the series.”
Sam Adams, Slate
“It’s like watching a midseason ‘Game of Thrones’ episode where the only thing the various stories have in common is that they’re at the same points in their arcs.”
Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter
“Narratively, Johnson has a tendency to create digressions within digressions, not that there’s anything necessarily wrong with that as long as you’re skilled enough to keep multiple balls in the air, which he mostly is. The humor does at times strike notes unusual for the franchise, more often to the good than bad, and John Williams’ vigorous eighth Star Wars franchise score never sounds rote or tiresomely familiar.”
Brian Lowry, CNN
“While ‘Force Awakens’ did an admirable job of engineering a baton pass by establishing the new cast (the other key members being John Boyega as Finn and Oscar Isaac as Poe), ‘Last Jedi’ bogs down in the middle and, the cooler parts notwithstanding, doesn’t rally enough at the finish to offset that.”
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
“‘The Last Jedi’ gives you an explosive sugar rush of spectacle. It’s a film that buzzes with belief in itself and its own mythic universe – a euphoric certainty that I think no other movie franchise has. And there is no provisional hesitation or energy dip of the sort that might have been expected between episodes seven and nine.”
Scott Mendelson, Forbes
“It is one of the best Star Wars movies we’ve seen thus far, standing alongside ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ and ‘Revenge of the Sith’ as a visually dazzling and character-driven spectacle which sets itself apart from the blockbuster pack.”
